Here is where we are going today. We came out of a sermon series (four sermons) the last four weeks where we examined the topics that you had voted on – that you had chosen and then voted on. The top four topics each got a Sunday and then last Sunday, the #1 topic that was over 6,000 votes that was voted for was “Overcoming Struggles with Sin” or “Fighting Sin”. So at the end of that message we ended with in order to fight sin, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit; to live by the Spirit of God within us; the power of Him. So that kind of opens up a whole new door of really where we are going now for the next four weeks of “Who is the Holy Spirit?” What does he do? What is my relationship to Him and with Him? So the next four weeks, we’re going to be in this series called, “Power to Live” and we’re going to be examining the person and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Today the question for us…the message is entitled “Who is the Holy Spirit?”
Next week is “My Relationship with the Holy Spirit.”
And then we have the “Fruits of the Holy Spirit”
And then the final message, “The Gifts of the Holy Spirit”
So we’re excited to be in this today. We’re going to dig into the Bible first and really get into some verses and we’re going to be all over the place. Then if you permit me, at the end of the message, its story time, okay? So we’ve got story time coming up.
So since we’re talking about Him, let’s ask the Holy Spirit to be here. Holy Spirit, come and fill our hearts so we can hear; open our eyes so we can see; take my speech and use it for Your glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
So the Holy Spirit…our heritage (I don’t know each one of you) but, I’m saying in general, my heritage is from that I grew up the first ten years of my life was in this area and the way that I grew up and the brand of Christianity that I was around had a certain way of looking at the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the activities of the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t very common to hear about the Holy Spirit or to really investigate what it meant to be filled with the Holy Spirit and what were the spiritual gifts that God has given you and you’ve got to find out what those are so you can use them in the body of Christ. It wasn’t really talked about that way.
I believe that because much of what I was learning about the Spirit-filled life was a reaction against charismatic teaching thought. Here’s what I mean. There’s a charismatic movement in evangelical Christianity and they would speak in tongues and have various manifestations of the Holy Spirit, they would say. It got really weird with some people. People were rolling around in the ground and as a reaction against that, I think, the reaction was too far to really to limit the person and the work of the Holy Spirit in my neat little box because the crazy charismatic’s over here kind of wanted us to do that. Maybe you need another example of crazy charismatics. So I’m going to give you a clip. Hit the lights back there. This is my good friend, Benny Hinn, healing people and hitting them with the power of the Holy Spirit. It just happens to be with his suit coat. So take a look.
Now is that God working in those people’s lives? In the Bible somewhere, Jebediah 14:11 say that you can fan the Holy Spirit to people and they fall over? No, of course not! That’s ridiculous. So as a reaction against that, I think, that where I came from…and I came from a lot of where you guys came from. We’re scared of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. So much so that if somebody raises their hand in worship, some of us…be honest…some of you would be like, “What’s going on there?” Yes, I knew I was onto something here.
So what I see then in my life is really not knowing exactly much about the Holy Spirit. Maybe some of you are in the same boat. In wanting to beware of this kind of stuff, we relegate the Holy Spirit to our neat little tidy box that we can organize that He never does anything other than what we’ve learned growing up with.
So I want to try today to talk about the Holy Spirit, learn about who He is and what He does, and then we’ll go into story time, remember? So, first let’s look at the Trinity because we’ve got to understand this concept of the Trinity. So if you have your Bibles, I invite you to take it out. We’re going to go to many different passages and we’re going to try to see if the Trinity is even in the Bible. The Trinity is the idea that God is One, but He is three persons in one. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It was in the baptismal formula. I didn’t make that up. That’s from Jesus in Matthew 28. The Father, the Son, the Spirit. But is the doctrine of the Trinity really in the Bible? We need to start here in Genesis 1 and we’ll start at verse 26:
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Here you see the plural. God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit – they use the plural. God said, “Let us make man in our image.” Now the Hebrews have the same scriptures and how they talk about that in the Hebrew it’s the plural of majesty. So you talk about majesty, you use the plural. It doesn’t necessarily reflect that God is plural. You see what I am saying?
But then verse 27 is interesting.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
So the parallel in these verses is that God makes man in his own image and what does he make? He makes male and female. There is a plural there. The reflection of the image of God is in man and women. Okay, so right in the beginning in Genesis we get a picture that there might be something deeper than just the singular oneness of God, which we believe, but we believe in the 3-in-one.
In Isaiah 6:8 this is the same plural used. God says this when he’s calling the prophet Isaiah.
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
Now let’s go to the New Testament. Matthew 3 – the first book in the New Testament. This is the baptism of Jesus. Jesus is being baptized. Verse 16:
16As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him.
17And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
Even at the baptism of Jesus, you had Jesus the Son, the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove, and then a voice of the Heavenly Father saying, “This is my Son, whom I am well pleased.” There is a picture right there of God in three persons.
Matthew 28 (which I kind of mentioned already) Jesus is giving the last instructions to his disciples before he ascends to heaven. Matthew 28:19, 20:
19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
There is the formula: Father, Son, Spirit. Jesus used it. It’s a reflection of the Trinity. Now go to Acts 2:32-38. This was Pentecost Sunday which we’re going to talk about in a minute because this is the time when the Holy Spirit came to the church. The Holy Spirit in verse 33 – this is interesting –
32God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. 33Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
There you see the three-in-one in Peter’s Sermon. And then in verse 38:
38Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We have to start in our understanding of the Trinity of who God is. We have to start to get rid of the idea that God is the old man. He’s kind of the one in charge. He’s the Father, God the Father. Jesus is the Son and he’s really kind of the one that we relate to better because he was actually human; and then the Holy Spirit. He’s kind of floating around and we don’t really know him. They are in perfect unity together. They are equal even though at times, Jesus did what the Father said to do in his earthy ministry. He was a servant to God in a sense during that time period. They are equal. There’s a difference in the Trinity in the work of Jesus, but they are equal and each one seeks to glorify the other. You see Jesus says, I’ve come to do the will of my Father.” He’s always pointing to the Father, to the Father, to the Father. The Father is always pointing to the Son. This is my Son with whom I am well-pleased. This is my Son. The Holy Spirit always testifies to Jesus. Look to Jesus…look to Jesus…look to Jesus – the perfect in unity. They seek to glorify the other and really the whole universe glorifies the one God.
Romans 15:16 - God had called Paul
16to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
You see it again? It’s God the Father, Jesus the Son, The Holy Spirit – the Three in One.
I Peter 1:2…I mean, we could do this all day. I won’t, but I Peter 1:2. Just go there. He’s writing - Peter to God’s elect (so to Christian people) – then verse 2:
who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ…
So it’s right there. The Trinity. This idea of Three-In-One is the doctrine that Christianity holds that is different from all other religions.
Now especially in the gospel of John you see this time and time and time again. The Father sends the Son, the Son sends the Spirit. In the beginning, John 1:1, was the Word. The Word was with God, the Word was God, the Word being Jesus; and then the Word Jesus came and made his home among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father. It’s there and then Jesus himself all over in John talks about the Father and then he talks about the Son that is to come. The Son is sent by the Father, Jesus said in John 14:24. He comes from him (John 16:28), the Spirit is given by the Father (14:16), he is sent from the Father (14:26), proceeds from the Father (15:26). Yet the Son is closely involved in the coming of the Spirit. He prays for His coming (John 14:16). The Father sends the Spirit in the Son’s name (John 14:26). The Son will send a Spirit from the Father and the Son must go away so that he could send the Spirit (John 16:7).
Okay, so now here we are and God that we worship is here in the person of the Holy Spirit. Maybe you said a prayer when you were growing up and you said, “Dear Jesus, come into my heart” and he did, but he came in by His Spirit, by the Holy Spirit.
So the Holy Spirit is not just some wispy thing floating around. He is God. He is a person. He is a Holy Spirit. Now let me ask this question: When did the Holy Spirit come? Because if we believe in the Trinity, we believe that he always existed. He is God, right? So when did he come to earth?
In the Old Testament, he came upon people. In Exodus 31 we read that the Holy Spirit was upon certain people in their building of the Tabernacle. So God had gifted and blessed certain people to do different jobs in the building of the Tabernacle.
In Judges 15, we see that the prophets of God – the judges of God – the power of the Holy Spirit would come upon them. One of my favorites growing up was Samson. Samson, the power of the Holy Spirit would come upon Samson and he killed a thousand guys with a jawbone of a donkey. How did he do it? Did he do it all in his own strength? No. He did it because the Spirit of God was upon him.
In Micah 3:8 – another prophet of God – he declares that the nation of Israel should repent of their sins because the Spirit of the Living God is upon me.
So the Spirit of God in the Old Testament comes upon people and works upon people in different situations, but it doesn’t seem that He is there all the time filling people as we do see in the New Testament. In Matthew 3 when Jesus is baptized, the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus for earthly ministry and Jesus even says that in John 14 that the Spirit of God was the one that empowered him to do the miraculous, to do the raising of the people to life; to give the blind sight, to make the lame walk.
So the Spirit of God was there and present in the ministry of Jesus, but then the Spirit of the Living God came to dwell among God’s people in Acts 2. It’s called Pentecost Sunday. It’s the day that the disciples were all praying. They were waiting for the Holy Spirit to come. Jesus had said, “Go and wait.” And they were waiting and all of a sudden the Spirit of God descended among the disciples and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they did speak in tongues and they proclaimed the Good News that Jesus saves in many different tongues. Three thousand people became Christians on the day that the Holy Spirit took up residence here with us, with the church.
One more question and then we’ll get to story time, all right? It’s coming. What does the Holy Spirit do? Well, the Holy Spirit convicts the world and people of sin and convicts the world of righteousness. It’s in John 14. Jesus is talking about the Spirit that is to come. He says in verse 26:
26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things…”
So the Holy Spirit is our teacher. The Holy Spirit teaches us the things of God. When I am preaching, when you are learning, when you are reading your scripture, you don’t get anything out of it unless the Holy Spirit opens it up and teaches you from it.
And then in chapter 16:8 here is the conviction of righteousness and sin:
8When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt[a] in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:
So the Holy Spirit comes now and convicts of right, of wrong. And this leads to the second one: the Holy Spirit fills believers and gifts them for service – gives them gifts to use for service. So when you come to Christ and you believe in Jesus – that Jesus is the only Son of God that went to the cross to die in your place, to die for your sin. You can never please God with your goodness (so don’t even try). You can only please God by being associated with His Son, with His work on the cross where Jesus absorbed the wrath of God that you rightly deserve for your sin so that you could trust in him and now when God looks at you he sees his Son with whom He is well please with. When you do that, by God’s grace, the Holy Spirit comes into your life. He starts to convict you of sin and righteousness. Now some of the things that you were comfortable with in your life before knowing Jesus, now it’s getting harder and harder to do some of these same things – the sin in my life. See that’s the Holy Spirit starting to work on you. Some of the things that you would never imagine to do before now you’re starting to have a hunger and a thirst to do these other things. That’s because you are a new creation. The old has gone away and behold you’re becoming new because the Holy Spirit fills you and then we’ll see later on in the message he actually gives spiritual gifts to people to use in service for the Kingdom. Do you know what your spiritual gift is? You have at least one if you are a believer.
Another thing that the Holy Spirit does is that he testifies to the Son. The Holy Spirit always testifies about the Son. That’s in John 15:26 and 27. The Holy Spirit is always pointing to Jesus so when you are here in a service and you feel that God is here…God is doing something. He’s working in my heart. It’s always directing you towards Jesus, right? That’s what the Holy Spirit does. He always directs people to Jesus. So that you would look to Jesus and you would believe on Jesus and that’s the Holy Spirit. He prompts you and pushes you and he calls you. Actually, the Bible says that he is the one that draws you to Himself.
So that was a quick overview of just some verses about the Holy Spirit as we get rolling into this series. I did say story time, so I’m going to share some of my personal experiences with the Holy Spirit. First with the experiences…a couple of experiences that the Holy Spirit didn’t come through. Okay, let’s just put it that way. He didn’t come through with what I was asking. The first one is not so serious, the second one a little more.
The first one when I was a kid I remember going out into the woods, actually right down the road. And I sat down and I wanted to seek God. I’d been hearing stories about what miraculous things God had done in the Bible. I mean, he rose from the dead. Noah built an ark and the whole world was flooded. All of these miraculous things that were happening. Samson killed all those dudes. I mean, this would be easy for God to do this. “God, I’m going to put two sticks and I’m going to cross them. I’m just going to sit here and pray and just seek your face. Could you uncross the sticks?” No one has ever done that? Okay!! I’m weird. “But God, could you please do that? Holy Spirit, could you come and just move that. I just need a boost in my faith just to see that you are real. I know that you’re real. I believe that you’re real, but this would just be a great confirmation.” So I sat there and I prayed. I prayed and I prayed…and I prayed. And the sticks didn’t move.
My grandpa when I was 18 years old, coming back into the country from Mexico from a Missions Trip and my parents called me and said that Grandpa is really sick and he’s in the hospital. You better get here as fast as you can. And so I got there and he walked into the hospital (about 89 years old) and he was fine, but then he died a week later. So this was two days before he died. And I cried out to God to please heal grandpa. “You can do all things, God. This wouldn’t be a big deal for you. You spoke the universe into existence. Holy Spirit, please come and touch him.” He didn’t.
Now there are some other experiences that I’ve had that were more on the positive side. Those negative things that happened, it doesn’t mean that God’s not real or the Holy Spirit’s not real or that he doesn’t love you, he’s not intimately involved. It just means that you’re not on the same page as he’s on. There were a couple of times that I was on the same page.
One time was at a Bible camp. I was in Junior High. I’ll never forget this. I’ve never really shared this publicly to tell you the truth, but at Bible Camp one of the nights I was up praying with another kid who was a couple of years older than me. And we were praying and we were seeking God and praying for the Camp and we looked outside and a girl was hurt. There were paramedics that came or maybe it wasn’t paramedics, but it was a van…they were going to take this girl. We saw them carry her from the girl’s dorm and into the van and go off. We didn’t know what it was about. We didn’t know what happened. We said, “We really feel that God wants us to pray.” So we were just praying and praying. And as we prayed and we were talking about spiritual things, all of a sudden on the wall of the room there was a picture of Jesus. You’ve seen it probably. It was a picture of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and he’s praying to heaven and heaven is kind of opening up a little bit. And the picture began to glow. Jesus’ head began to glow and in heaven, the angels began to glow in this dark room just as plain as day. I’m a skeptic in my heart and in my mind. “Do you see that?” He said, “Yes.” We had a holy moment like the Lord was there. We were crying and still in my skepticism I went right up to the painting and I put my hands like this to see if it was really glowing and it was. I’ve never had that experience in my life – no vision like that or whatever.
Now I don’t share that because people sometimes seek an experience rather than what does the Holy Spirit do? He points to Jesus. So this is the first time that I’ve ever really shared that. We shared it at camp the next day and the next night you know what happened? The Holy Spirit fell. He came on the camp. He’s here, but he came in a way that was irresistible. You’ve heard of irresistible faith…irresistible. People were coming to Christ. A little boy that had been molested his whole life forgave his dad and called him. We were all around praying for him and soon the whole building filled with people and everybody was weeping and repenting. I remember being outside and this is so great. Your sinfulness was so on display to God, before you and God, so it was terrible in one way, but the refreshing came and the tears. It just consumed the whole camp. Never had any experience like it. I can direct you to some of my friends. You just ask them, “Hey, Pastor Steve was talking about a Bible Camp. Tell me about it.” They’ll tell you about it right away.
The pastors that were there…I talked with a guy that has been 18 years…he said, “in my whole years of ministry” (he’s 76 years old) and he said “I have never seen that happen like that.” It was amazing! I’m so thankful for it and thankful for the lives that God saved in that time. It was always that the glory was for Jesus.
Then there were other experiences from God. When I was in seminary and I shared this with the new members class, I preached at a church in Evergreen Park and they paid me a $100 a week to come and preach. It was great. I mean, I should have been paying them because my sermons were brutal. One week, we were getting ready to leave. I was just newly married to Stephanie and we had been giving $25 a week for our offerings to that church. And she said, “Should we do our normal offering because we don’t have $40 in the checking account and we have a bill that is coming due this week and it’s going to be pretty tight?” And I said, “Yeah, it’s pretty tight and I’m not a legalist so let’s just hold off on that. That’s fine. We’ll just not give.” Then we got ready to go and we got out to the car I said, “You know, Steph, if we can’t trust God for $25, how can we say that we trust him with our eternal souls? Let’s give it.” She said, “Yeah. I felt that same way.” So we went to church, gave the money in the offering and after the service I was up front. This little old lady was treasurer of the church and she came up to me and said, “We decided that we’re going to give you a$150 a week for coming out.” And I just smiled and said, “Thanks.” I had a little weighted guilt that I had even considered not doing that. And God doubled that. He gave me $50 extra. It was such a learning experience for Stephanie and I in that moment. It was the Holy Spirit. He was there. He was doing that. It wasn’t just coincidence.
And then in Virginia…last story. I told you Story Time. When I was out in Virginia, many of you know that I was trying to plant a church. It just went completely wrong, according to me, according to what I thought was going to happen. The opening service I had more pizzas than people in the service. I had bought a bunch of pizzas thinking that a bunch of people were going to come. And a woman came to faith in Jesus Christ in that service. She had no church background. She trusted in Jesus and I should have been overjoyed and excited that somebody got saved, but I moped around. I was so sad that there were more pizzas than people there. I was so messed up. God was breaking me and shaping me for us here now. I didn’t know it then. So at the end of this time, there was spiritual warfare. It was terrible. Steph was away from home for the first time with a new little baby. I just didn’t know what was going to happen. We didn’t have a place to live anymore. So I would pray with this pastor, an evangelical free pastor, in this little prayer chapel in the building that I had my office. We prayed together. It was dark and we would just spend time with the Lord. It was great. This day, one of the last days it felt like, I didn’t know what to do, we get ready to go into the prayer time in the chapel. And somebody comes to the church – a husband and wife. The pastor knew them, not too well, but had seen them at different functions. They had their own local ministry I think to abused kids or something. They came and he said that we were just going to go into prayer time now and they said, “Could we join you? We just felt the Spirit of the Lord telling us to come, to stop by here.” He said, “Sure. You can come and pray with us.”
So we went into the prayer time and right away I knew that these maybe were possibly the crazy charismatic people because he lays down on the floor with his face down to the ground. She’s kneeling. There are little pews there in this area and we started to pray. We prayed for a while and then this guy stands up. He comes over to me. I can see because I’m praying, but I would open my eyes every once in a while. And he comes over and he puts his hand on me and he says, “Can I pray for you? God has given me a message for you.” And I said, “Yeah, sure.” And then this is the Holy Spirit right there in that moment too. The Holy Spirit spurred my pastor friend (he’s in his mid-sixties). He’s been here, Angus MacDonald. And he said this, “Steve, before he prays you know God’s Word says in I Thessalonians 5:20, “Don’t forsake prophetic utterances.” He knew that’s what I was thinking in my mind right away like, “Sure, you can pray for me. Hurry up.” You know what I mean? That’s what I was thinking! “Yeah, he’s got some prophecy for me. I’ve got the Bible, buddy. I don’t need your prophecy, all right? Take a hike.” I didn’t say that, but he knew that’s what I was thinking that. But still I was still skeptical and he started praying. And the Holy Spirit, after about 45 seconds with my head down wondering what’s this going to be about, my eyes just turned into faucets, tears. The Lord spoke through this guy, right to me for what was going on. And he told about coming to this ministry through this guy, through this prophetic utterance.
I don’t share these things for a couple of different reasons all the time is because #1, the crazy charismatic stuff. But also because of some of you, “Well, why haven’t I experienced something like that?” And then there will be some people who will want to pursue an experience, but that’s not what the Holy Spirit does. He doesn’t give you an experience to enjoy. He always points to Jesus. It’s always to Jesus, to what he has done – that he has shed his blood for you and for your salvation. It’s not to long after some experience. It’s to long after the relationship with God Almighty through Jesus and to be filled with the Spirit of God in your life.
During this past week, while balloon boy and his family were pulling a fast one over everybody…you know the helium balloon and the boy…yeah. There is another boy who called into a radio station, Sky Angel Network…I want to play you the audio from it because the Holy Spirit used this little boy. Here’s what I mean. He uses him to point to Jesus. Then we’re going to close in prayer. So Burl, if you’ve got that – let’s just hear it.
Experiences that we have – the Holy Spirit – he uses them. He points to Jesus. Do you know Jesus? The Holy Spirit is here now and he’s pointing to Jesus. Jesus who died on the cross to pay for your sin. You can never hope to pay. You couldn’t ever earn, but you can freely receive it right now. Let’s pray.
Thank you Lord. Thank you Spirit. Forgive us for maybe a reaction against some whacky things that we try to put you in our little neat box. We don’t want to do that. We want you to come. Descend upon us, we pray. Right now, Lord, if there is someone here who is wanting to come to you and believe, draw them to yourself and let them know that you will receive them. Your Word says that he who has Jesus has life. He who does not have the Son does not have life – that they would reach out and say, “I believe. Forgive me. Holy Spirit, come into my life. Save me. I’m yours.”
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for teaching us today. Lord, we commit our day to you; our week to you; our lives to you. We ask that you would give us the power to live for you; to be a witness to the cross of Calvary and we thank you that we receive the victory in that cross, in Jesus. So we give you praise. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
If you want to pray after the service, I’m going to be up here at the altar and we can pray together. I’d love to pray with you; pray for you; pray together with you. You can pray for me. So we’re going to do that and make it that open available for anyone who would like to. And let’s sing together our closing hymn. I’ll ask you to stand. We’re going to sing, “Victory in Jesus”.
