The Presence Of The Holy Spirit Series

As a child, I lived before the Marvel Universe. As a matter of fact, I lived before Superhero movies and after superhero TV shows. My childhood was a childhood of superhero comics. And for the most part, I wasn’t a Marvel fan; I was a DC fan.

I grew up with Superman and Batman. With the Flash and the Green Lantern. As I got a little older, my interest shifted a little more to the Marvel side of things with Spiderman and the Fantastic Four.

But for better or worse, by the time I was thirteen, I had moved away from comic books and spent my time in novels. And I know the cool kids don’t read comic books now instead they read graphic novels. To quote Shakespeare "A rose by any other name . . ."

In 1978 I was reintroduced to Superheroes with the Superman Movie and in 1989 Batman came to life on the big screen, and for the rest of my life the Man of Steel will always look like Christopher Reeve and the Caped Crusader will look like Michael Keaton. Don’t judge me.

In the last ten years or so Angela and I began to immerse ourselves in the Marvel Universe, for better or worse.

And one thing I’ve discovered about the geeky kids, no matter their age is they love to discuss the attributes of their favourite superheroes.

When I was a kid, the question was: Who was better, Superman or Batman?

Superman had super strength and x-ray vision. He was faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and he could fly.

And be that as it may, my thought was that Batman was way cooler because he didn’t have superpowers, Unless you consider obscene amounts of money and good looks superpowers, he just had cool stuff, like the bat mobile and the utility belt.

And at this point you’re probably thinking I’ve wandered off the trail and into the woods with all this talk about comic books and superheroes?

This week we are beginning our series on the Holy Spirit, and through the rest of January and February, the preaching team will be looking at the attributes of the Third Person of the Trinity.

Now you’re even more confused, because you’re wondering what in the world superheroes have to do with the Holy Spirit? Stay with me.

Often when you hear Christians talk about the Trinity, you will hear them comparing the attributes of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, and who is the most powerful. Christian geeks as opposed to comic geeks.

It’s almost, “Who’s your favourite member of the Trinity?” And if that is a reality, if we can in fact have a favourite member of the Trinity, then for many people the Holy Spirit ends up placing third.

And probably, pastors need to take part of the responsibility, or the blame, depending on how you want to word it. The reason is the lack of preaching on the Holy Spirit. And I’m to blame as much as any preacher.

Too often we know the Holy Spirit, with a head knowledge. We know him intellectually through songs and hymns and the occasional sermon. But he isn’t someone we consciously relate to in our everyday lives.

It’s very similar to knowing all about a celebrity, without actually having met them.

Oh, we know the Holy Spirit exists intellectually. And we know that the Holy Spirit is a part of the Trinity, intellectually, but because we don’t know what the bible teaches about Him, it’s easy to ignore Him relationally.

This morning, I’d like to introduce you to the Holy Spirit, and we will start with the scripture that was read earlier.

Genesis 1:2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Sot the first thing we discover is The Holy Spirit was Present at the World’s Creation

Here, at the very beginning of the story, we are first introduced to the Spirit. In the story of creation, we see the Spirit as a partner in all that was happening.

Creation was actually the work of the Trinity; you will remember the words from John 1:1–4 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.

So, when we think of the creation process, we often default to God the Father, and sometimes we will remember John’s words and understand that Jesus, the Son, also had a part in what was happening in the creation of the Universe. But let’s not forget that it was God in his entirety, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who created all things.