#4 We Believe In God The Holy Spirit Series

As we have been looking at the basics, the things we believe as Christians, what tops the list are the things of God. Who is God? And how do we know Him? We have been considering the Holy Trinity. We have looked at God the Father, and last week we looked at God the Son, Jesus. Now the third part or person of the Trinity we will look at today is God the holy Spirit.

We have We sung about the Holy Spirit in our time of praise this morning. Just who is the Holy Spirit? Who or what is the Holy Spirit? Very quickly I want to put to rest three common misconceptions:

1. The Holy Spirit is a Person. Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as to a person. Nowhere in Scripture is the Spirit of God treated as an inanimate object. He is given names. He is given a personality. He is given jobs. He is given functions. These are not qualities of an “it,” but of a living person of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit is not something, He is someone.

2. The Holy Spirit is not “The Force” from Star Wars. Many people view the Holy Spirit according to the description Obi-Wan Kenobi gives the force in the Star Wars movies. They see the Holy Spirit as “something” that controls your movements, but obeys your commands. They see the Holy Spirit as “something” that surrounds us and binds the galaxy together.

Acts 13:2 While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Here, we see the Holy Spirit speaking to His people, making a command. The Holy Spirit commands us, we do not command Him.

3. The Holy Spirit does not make you uncontrollable. Now, I don’t know everyone’s background, but I must say this: There are no cases in Scripture where the Holy Spirit comes upon a person and they begin doing things that would land them in an insane asylum. As we will see, the Holy Spirit may fill, but the Holy Spirit may be resisted as well. At Pentecost when people began speaking in tongues, it was for other people’s benefits. We see no case of hysterical laughter, or people needlessly running laps around a group of people or falling faint. In fact, most of the time in Scripture when someone was filled with the Holy Spirit, words of edification soon came from their mouth.

It is hard to cover the entire expanse of the Holy Spirit in just one sermon. 10 years ago I preached a series of 10 sermons centered on the person of the Holy Spirit and work of the Holy Spirit. I will not attempt to preach all 10 of those sermons this morning. But understand, the Bible has quite of bit of information about the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts have been called the “The Acts of the Holy Spirit” vice “The Acts of the Apostles” by a number of scholars. The Holy Spirit is not just present here and there in the Bible, the work of the Holy Spirit and His presence can been seen throughout the Bible.

The are many pertinent passages in the New Testament describing the work and person of the Holy Spirit. Much was written by Paul in Romans 8, 1 Corinthians chapters 2, 12-14, and 2 Corinthians 3 and Galatians 5. Today we are going to look at what Jesus tells us about the Holy spirit as recorded by John in various verses in chapters 14, 15, and 16.

Often in Scripture and in preaching, when we speak of the Holy Spirit, the words used are often inter-changeable with other words for the Trinity. We will say the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of God which all means the Holy Spirit. We will also ask for God to move in this place, or Jesus will say where two or three are gathered in His name He is with us (Matt 18:20). We are all talking about the presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ presence in this world is through His people who possess the Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of Jesus within us.

John 14:16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;

“Helper” in some translations is “Counselor.” The Greek it is “parakletos” which was a term used for legal assistants who pleaded a cause or presented a case, or one who comes alongside. The Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost to assist or help, but also to empower the Apostles and for us. But this One who comes alongside to empower us is not just one who shows up and leaves, but One whom Jesus says, “He may be with you forever.” Those who have Jesus as their Lord and Savior also has The Holy Spirit, and Spirit is with us always.