A. The Apostles’ Creed is an early statement of Christian belief that has been embraced by many Christians over the years.
1. I like the story told about a children’s catechism class that was learning the Apostles Creed.
2. Each child in the class had been assigned a sentence from the creed to recite.
3. The first one said, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.”
4. The second child said, “I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.”
5. After a number of other children followed with their additional statements about Jesus (His virgin birth, death and resurrection), there was an awkward silence.
6. Everyone waited for the next line of the creed to be recited, which is about the Holy Spirit.
7. Finally, one of the children said, “Teacher, the boy who believes in the Holy Spirit isn’t here.”
B. I hope that everyone who is here today and everyone who is watching at home are people who believe in the Holy Spirit.
1. As Christians we believe that there is one God in three persons– the Father Almighty, Jesus Christ, His only Son, and the Holy Spirit.
2. As we continue in our sermon series on hope in the promises of God, we have been learning about the promise that we can defeat Satan, our enemy, and win the spiritual battle.
3. These past two weeks, we have learned that we can win the spiritual battle because we have a Savior who understands us and can help us, and because we have a Savior who prays for us.
4. Today, we want to explore the promise that we have a Helper who empowers us.
5. Jesus, our Savior, Lord, and High Priest, is at the right hand of God in heaven and lives to intercede for us – which is so helpful and is such a blessing.
6. But in addition to our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother, we have an earthly helper, the Holy Spirit, who lives right inside of us.
C. Francis Chan wrote an excellent, recent book about the Holy Spirit that he titled “Forgotten God.”
1. And that’s a good title, because the Holy Spirit is often forgotten, or overlooked.
2. If you ask a Christian to describe who is God the Father, they usually have an answer.
3. If you ask them to describe who is God the Son, they have no trouble giving an answer.
4. But if you ask them “Who is God the Holy Spirit?” all you will hear are the crickets chirping.
5. I think there are many reasons why the Holy Spirit is harder to pin down and to describe, but we must not overlook or undervalue the Holy Spirit.
D. The Holy Spirit is spoken of often in the New Testament, and this third member of the Godhead plays a very important role in our lives.
1. The apostle John devoted a significant amount of space in his Gospel to the teachings Jesus gave His disciples on the night before His crucifixion.
2. A lot of Jesus’ teachings that night focused on the Holy Spirit and His role going forward.
3. In John 14, Jesus said, 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. 17 He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.” (Jn. 14:15-17)
a. Here Jesus identifies the Holy Spirit as the Counselor who would be with the followers of Jesus forever.
b. Jesus identifies Him as the Spirit of truth, and declares that He will be not only with us, but in us.
4. A few verses later, Jesus added, 25 “I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.” (Jn. 14:25-26)
a. Another role of the Spirit is to remind us of all that Jesus taught.
5. In John 15, Jesus said, 26 “When the Counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father —the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 You also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.” (Jn. 15:26-27)
a. Another role of the Spirit is to testify about Jesus.
6. In John 16, Jesus added this information about the Holy Spirit: 7 “Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment…” (Jn. 16:7-8).
a. It is hard to imagine that we are better off without Jesus being here with us in this world, and yet Jesus explains that He has to go so the Spirit can come – that would be beneficial.
b. Jesus highlights another role of the Spirit – the convicting of the world about sin, righteousness and judgment.
7. Look at one last thing from John’s Gospel, Jesus said: 13 “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. (Jn. 16:13-14)
a. The Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth, and He will declare what is to come.
b. And notice again that the Spirit doesn’t draw attention to Himself, but seeks to focus attention on Jesus and to glorify Jesus.
E. So, from these few verses, we begin to get a picture of how important is the role of the Holy Spirit.
1. After Jesus died on the cross and arose from the grave, He met on several occasions with His disciples before ascending to the right hand of God.
2. In Acts 1, during one of those post-resurrection appearances, He gave them these instructions and this promise: 4 While he was with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise. “Which,” he said, “you have heard me speak about; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days.”
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?”
7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:4-8)
3. In verse 8 we find our promise for today: you have a helper, the Holy Spirit, who empowers you! “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you.”
4. Imagine all of the promises Jesus could have made to the disciples at that time, but He didn’t.
a. Jesus didn’t promise them immediate success.
b. Jesus didn’t promise them the absence of persecution or struggle.
c. Jesus didn’t promise them good health and great wealth.
5. What Jesus did promise was the perpetual, empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.
6. Everything that happens from Acts 2 through Revelation 22 is the result of the work of the Holy Spirit.
7. The Holy Spirit came alongside the disciples and came inside the disciples and gave the early church the push they needed to face the challenges ahead and to accomplish God’s mission.
F. Do you and I need the spiritual push and power of the Holy Spirit today? Absolutely! Undeniably!
1. In Max Lucado’s chapter on this promise, he shares a helpful personal illustration.
2. Max says, “Several years ago when my legs were stronger, my belly was flatter, and my ego was bigger, I let my friend Pat convince me to enter a bike race.”
a. The race included a one and one half mile climb up a steep hill with a gradient of 12 %.
b. The hill is called “Killer Diller” and it lived up to the hype.
c. Max signed up for the race because his friend Pat told him he could make it, even through the Killer Diller climb.
3. That was easy for Pat to say because Pat was 15 years younger than Max and had competed in bike racing since his youth – Pat was riding pelotons before the rest of us knew what they were.
4. When Max balked at the idea of completing the race, Pat assured him, “Believe me, Max, you will make it, I promise.”
a. But Max almost didn’t make it.
5. When the race began, the bikers who belonged in the race left those who didn’t far behind.
a. Max and his fellow stragglers were joking with each other about the race and the upcoming climb, but they didn’t joke for long.
b. It takes breath to talk and soon they needed every breath just to keep peddling.
c. By the time he was halfway up the steep incline his thighs were on fire, and he was having less-than-pleasant thoughts about his friend Pat who had gotten him in this situation.
6. That’s when Max felt the “push” – it was a hand pressing against the small of his back.
a. Max turned and looked – it was Pat.
b. Pat had already finished the race and anticipating Max’s exhaustion, had hurried back up the hill to give Max a hand.
7. Pat said: “I told you that you would make it and I came to make sure you did!”
G. It is the Holy Spirit who promises to do the same for you and for me.
1. After Jesus ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit became the primary agent of the Godhead on earth.
2. The Holy Spirit is here on earth and lives in us to complete what was begun by the Father and Son.
3. Although all three persons of the Godhead are active, the Spirit is taking the lead in this final age.
4. Max Lucado uses the acronym “P.U.S.H.” to describe the way the Holy Spirit helps us.
5. The Spirit promises to give us Power, Unity, Supervision, and Holiness.
H. The Holy Spirit enters the believer upon their confession of faith and immersion into Christ (Eph. 1:13, Acts 2:38).
1. From that moment forward, the Christian has access to the very power and personality of God.
2. As the Spirit is allowed to have His way in us, we are transformed into the likeness of God.
3. We begin to think the way God thinks, love the way God loves, and impact others the way God impacts others.
4. The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to minister in power, to pray in power, and walk in power.
5. This power includes the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23).
6. These attributes appear in the life of a disciple in the same way an apple appears on the branch of a tree.
a. Fruit happens as result of relationship – if you sever the branch from the tree, then you can forget the fruit.
b. But if the branch continues to be connected to the trunk, nutrients flow and fruit results.
7. The same is true of the fruit of the Spirit – as our relationship with God is secured and unhindered by rebellion or sin, then we can expect a harvest of good fruit.
8. We can also expect the Spirit to provide the power and gifts for ministry that Paul laid out in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 and concluding that “One and the same Spirit is active in all these, distributing to each person as he wills” (vs. 11).
9. And so we see, it is the Holy Spirit who gives us power to change and live and serve.
I. The Holy Spirit also works to unify the church.
1. Paul instructed us to “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3)
2. Notice that the unity is not something we create, but is something that we are to maintain.
3. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul explained how the Spirit creates this unity: 12 For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink. (1 Cor. 12:12-13)
4. We all have the one Spirit and that one Spirit makes us into one body of Christ, and with the Spirit’s help, we can maintain our unity in the Spirit.
J. The Holy Spirit, in addition to power and unity, also supervises the church.
1. A supervisor is someone who helps keep a group of people working well together.
a. The supervisor’s main job is to take care of the employees and help them be successful.
2. The Holy Spirit does the same and so much more for the church.
3. A short list of the Holy Spirit’s job description includes:
a. Comforting the believers (Acts 9:31).
b. Guiding the believers into all truth (Jn. 16:13).
c. Revealing the things that are still to come (Jn. 16:13).
d. Offering prayers of intercession (Rom. 8:26).
e. Bearing witness to the believer that they are a child of God (Gal. 4:6-7; Rom. 8:16).
K. Finally, the list of the Holy Spirit’s activities would be incomplete without the word “Holy.”
1. The Holy Spirit also makes us holy.
2. One of His primary activities is to cleanse us from sin and to sanctify us for holy work.
3. Paul reminded the Corinthians: “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 6:11).
4. One of my favorite descriptions of the process of salvation and sanctification is in Paul’s letter to Titus: 4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 5 he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6 He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7)
5. We notice that the work of the Holy Spirit includes the washing of regeneration and renewal.
6. Back before we had modern, high-tech washing machines, people would wash clothes by scrubbing them on a washboard.
7. The Holy Spirit does that for us and with us – He rubs us until the result is a state of spotlessness.
L. The Holy Spirit does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
1. The Holy Spirit gives us supernatural power to transform us and empower us for God’s work.
2. The Holy Spirit creates a unity in the body of Christ.
3. The Holy Spirit supervises us by comforting, guiding, interceding to help us bear fruit.
4. We can’t make ourselves spotless and sanctified, but the Holy Spirit can make us that way.
M. Can you imagine that any of us would refuse the help of the Holy Spirit?
1. Let’s return to Max’s bike race illustration – his bicycle story had a happy ending.
2. Thanks to the push from Pat, Max climbed the hill, relished in the downhill route to the finish line.
3. He finished in the back of the pack, but he finished.
4. But what would have happened if Max had refused Pat’s assistance and had resisted Pat’s help? Saying, “I can do this all by myself, thank you very much!”
5. Or imagine if Max had denied Pat’s ability to help him? Saying, “This is too great for even you, Pat. No one can climb the Killer Diller hill.”
6. Of worst of all, what if Max had accused Pat of being the enemy and working against him? Saying, “You’re a fraud! Get away from me! You’re not a help, but a hindrance.”
7. For Max to have reacted to Pat in such a way would have been foolish.
8. For us to react in such a way to the Spirit of God would be so much more so.
a. Imagine us refusing and resisting the Holy Spirit!
b. Imagine us denying the Spirit’s ability to work in us!
c. Imagine us accusing the Spirit of working against us and calling Him our enemy!
N. That seems outrageous and improbable, but are any of us Christians ever guilty of trying to make it without the Spirit?
1. I like the question Paul asked the Galatians: Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh? (Gal. 3:3)
a. The New Living Translation renders the verse: After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?
2. Even though the Ephesians had received the promised Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13), Paul had to urge them to be “filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18).
a. Is it possible to be a saved individual and yet not be someone who is filled with the Spirit?
b. Some were in the church in Ephesus and some were in the church in Jerusalem.
c. When the early church needed to choose some servants to minister the food in Acts 6, the apostles instructed the church to “choose seven of your own men who are good, full of the Spirit and full of wisdom” (Acts 6:3).
d. The fact that they were instructed to choose 7 men who had those three characteristics including being filled with the Holy Spirit, means that there were some men who didn’t have those characteristics. Right?
3. If we want to be filled with the Spirit, then we have to make room for the Spirit.
a. When I was a teenager, we used to sing a song that said, “I can’t be filled with the Spirit until I’m empty of me.”
4. And once we make room for the Spirit, then we have to give way to the Spirit.
a. Have you ever gotten a new product at the supermarket, like ketchup, or Parmesan cheese and tried to use it and benefit from it, but had forgotten to take the foil seal off?
b. Or maybe you got a new ink cartridge for your printer and forgot to pull off that thin strip of tape that covers the outlet of the cartridge, it didn’t work very well did it?
c. And the same is true for us, we can get in the way of the Spirit’s work.
d. We can grieve the Holy Spirit by our sin (Eph. 4:30) and we can quench or extinguish the Holy Spirit by our unbelief (1 Thess. 5:19).
e. If we want to be filled with the Spirit and empowered by the Spirit, we need to regularly examine ourselves to see if we are persisting in disobedience, or harboring hatred or unforgiveness, or continuing in immoral attitudes or activities, or feeding our flesh rather than our faith.
5. If we want the Holy Spirit’s power and direction, then we must keep in step with the Spirit (Gal. 5:25).
a. “Keep in step” comes from a Greek word which means “to walk in an orderly way.”
b. The word was often used of those who were marching.
c. The Holy Spirit is like the drum major and we are the marching band.
d. The Holy Spirit is like the drill sergeant and we are the platoon.
1. “Left, left, left, right, left, right.”
e. The Holy Spirit directs and leads; and we must obey and follow.
O. Now, allow me to confess that I don’t pretend to understand exactly how God does His work through the Holy Spirit, but I believe in the Holy Spirit and want to learn to trust Him and walk by His direction and in His power.
1. I believe the promise of Philippians 2:13: “For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose” and I know that He does so through the Spirit.
2. I believe the promise of Acts 1:8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.”
3. Here’s the promise I want for each of us to write someplace where we will see it and meditate on it: I have a Helper who empowers me.
P. I want to end with this humorous story told by a preacher.
1. Wilma had been a member of his church for many, many years.
2. In her later years she needed the assistance of a cane to help in walking.
3. Often, as she would talk with people, including the preacher, she would make her points by lightly tapping me on a person’s chest or shoulder with the handle of her cane.
4. One Sunday after their morning worship service, the preacher was standing at the back of the sanctuary and Wilma hobbled up to him and said, “That was a pretty good sermon.”
5. With true Christian humility the preacher said, “Thank you Wilma, but it wasn’t me it was the Holy Spirit.”
6. Without batting an eye, she tapped the preacher in the middle of his chest with her cane and said, “Oh no, if it was the Holy Spirit it would have been a lot better than that.”
Q. I hope and pray that the good works and fruit of the Spirit displayed in my life and yours are far greater than anything that you or I could do in our own strength.
1. I hope it will be obvious to everyone that you and I have a Helper who is empowering us!
2. Let’s give praise and thanks to God – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
3. Since the Holy Spirit is the Helper who Empowers us, let’s allow the Spirit to do His work in us and through us!
Resources:
Unshakable Hope, Max Lucado, Thomas Nelson, 2018
