Behold The Greatness Of God The Holy Spirit Series

Behold the Greatness of God

(Part 3 - God the Holy Spirit)

John 14:15-26

Sermon by Rick Crandall

McClendon Baptist Church - Feb. 3, 2008

*The most important person in this room today is someone you have never seen. The Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ is here with us today. This is God’s wonderful truth.

*Over the past 3 weeks, we have been magnifying our focus on God, beholding the greatness of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Today our focus is on the Holy Spirit. Join me this morning in praising God the Holy Spirit!

1. Praise Him first because of His divine identity.

*Who is the Holy Spirit? Jesus helps us to see in vs. 16-18, where He said: “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

*Then in vs. 22, one of the disciples asked the Lord: “How is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” And in vs. 23, Jesus said: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”

*One of the most wonderful truths about being a Christian is that God the Father and Son come to live in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is God. Make no mistake about it. The Holy Spirit is not an “it,” though sometimes our Bibles use that pronoun to describe Him.

*The Holy Spirit is God. He is not a “force” like we see in the Star Wars movies. He is not just a source of power like electricity. He is God the “Helper” (or “Comforter” in the KJV). When Jesus said, “I will send you another Helper” in vs. 16, the Greek word for “another” means “another of the same kind.” And since Jesus is God, then the Holy Spirit is God. He is God everywhere. He is God.

*And since the Holy Spirit is almost always invisible, God’s Word has given us some symbols to help us understand His divine identity.

1-First, the Holy Spirit is like a dove. We see this in all four Gospels at the baptism of Jesus Christ. For example, in John 1:32, John the Baptist said: “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him [Jesus].”

*Why did the Spirit come down like a dove? I would have come down as a roaring lion or a majestic eagle. Wouldn’t you? But God chose to be a dove, innocent and harmless to show us that with all of His strength, He has a tender, peaceful nature. The Holy Spirit is like a dove.

2-And in John 3:5-8 He is like the wind:

-Independent. -- We cannot control the wind!

-Invisible. -- Most of the time God prefers to work behind the scenes.

-Powerful. -- In Acts 2:2 the Holy Spirit came as “a rushing, mighty wind.”

3-But God’s Spirit is also like fire. He appeared as flames of fire when He came to the church on Pentecost. He is the kind of fire that purifies, and gives light.

4-And He is like oil used to heal, soothe, and burn for light.

5-God’s Spirit is also is like water. In John 7:37-39 Jesus cried out and said: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

*The Holy Spirit is like “Rivers of living water” flowing strong and steady! -- Washing, refreshing, filling, satisfying.

*Dr. Donald Potts was one of my seminary professors, and one day he told us about taking a trip to Egypt. On the tour, they came to a river, and Dr. Potts saw a woman washing her clothes in the river. Then he looked upstream and saw a big, dirty water buffalo standing in the water. Then he looked downstream and saw several people getting their drinking water! Want a drink of that water? -- Of course not!

*You can’t get clean water from a filthy stream. And you can’t get a clean life from a dirty world. But the Spirit of God is like rivers of pure, living water in our souls.

6-A dove, wind, fire, oil, water, these are God-given pictures to teach us about His Spirit. But when you ask, “What is the Holy Spirit like?” The best answer is Jesus! The Holy Spirit is like Jesus!