I Want To Know About The Holy Spirit Series

“I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT”

1 John 4:13

FBCF – 8/20/23

Jon Daniels

INTRO – Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen – one of the first to discover the magnetic meridian of the North Pole & to discover the South Pole. On one of his trips, he took a homing pigeon w/ him. When he had finally reached the top of the world, he opened the bird’s cage & set it free. Imagine delight of his wife back in Norway when she looked up from the doorway of her home & the saw the pigeon circling in the sky above. No doubt she exclaimed, “He’s alive! My husband is still alive!”

That’s akin to what happened when Jesus ascended back to heaven. He was gone physically, but His disciples clung to His promise that He would send them the Holy Spirit. Imagine how pumped they were when that promise was realized on the Day of Pentecost! They had w/ them the continual reminder that Jesus was alive & victorious at the right hand of the Father. And the Holy Spirit continues to speak to us through to let us know of the reality of who Jesus is, the reality of His love & GRACE & salvation, & the reality of what He desires to do in our lives right now here today.

The Holy Spirit has come just as Jesus promised He would. John 14:16-17 – “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate [Comforter, Encourager] who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive Him because it isn’t looking for Him and doesn’t recognize Him. But you know Him because He lives with you now and later will be in you.” (NLT) Jesus promised that He would send the Holy Spirit & that’s exactly what He did. And the Holy Spirit is doing exactly what Jesus promised He would do.

So today, we continue in this series in 1 John entitled, “I Want to Know About.” So far, “Fellowship & Forgiveness” – “True Love.” Today, “I Want to Know About the Holy Spirit.”

EXPLANATION – 1 John 4:13 (p. 1023)

Some people are afraid of the Holy Spirit, confused about who He is, uncertain about what He does.

- See or hear about some people who say that the Holy Spirit made them fall down on the floor when a preacher touched them.

- See or hear people speaking strange words that sound like gibberish in an unbiblical way in a church service.

- See or hear about people screaming or laughing or shaking uncontrollably or dancing or running around the building in a worship service.

- Watched some videos this week of these types of unbiblical practices & it just made me sick to see the deception, the fakeness, the ridiculous comical abuses leading so many people astray.

Things like this are attributed to the Holy Spirit. They cause confusion among believers. They cause division among believers. And yet when you look carefully at the Scriptures & study them diligently, you find that they are not supported biblically.

Here's what our Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal statement states about the Holy Spirit:

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Saviour, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service. (https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/)

Here's our simple application for this message today:

APPLICATION – All Christ-followers have the Holy Spirit in them.

THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A PERSON – Jehovah’s Witnesses – If you were to look at their website “WHAT is the holy spirit?” Right off bat, see problems:

- “What” – not “Who”

- “holy spirit” – all lowercase

- This statement: “The holy spirit is God’s power in action, his active force…God sent out his spirit by projecting his energy to any place to accomplish his will…The holy spirit is not a person…Misconceptions about the holy spirit [list of reasons they believe the the Holy Spirit is not a Person]”

John 14:17 – “HE is the Holy Spirit [not IT is the holy spirit], who leads into all truth….He dwells w/ you & will be in you.” Francis Chan: “He’s not an indistinct ‘power’ or ‘thing’…In John 14:17, we read that the Spirit ‘dwells in you & will be w/ you.’ This calls us to relationship w/ the Spirit, instead of allowing us to think we can treat the Spirit as a power to be harnessed in order to accomplish our own purpose.” (Forgotten God, p. 70)