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.
2 Corinthians 1:21–22 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, 22 who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.
The Spirit in us is our assurance of our salvation. We were given the Holy Spirit at the moment of our conversion. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is us to yield to the Spirit. As we will see, the Spirit does force His will. As such, we know the Spirit has emotions because Paul warns us about grieving the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 4:30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Yes, we can and often do resist the Spirit. But Jesus calls the Helper the Spirit of truth:
John 14:17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
We have the Spirit of Truth. With all that is happening in the world, and all the falsehoods and lies that are being put out by the media (including social media), we need to realize that we possess the Spirit of Truth. We need to be in the habit of turning to One of Truth, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus who resides within us.
Yet this is also the one thing that separates the true Christian, the believer from the rest of the world. We have the Spirit of Truth, and the those in the world cannot know the truth because they neither see or know Him, the Holy Spirit.
John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
Here is where we see that the Holy Spirit leads in interpreting Scripture for us. The interesting thing here is that the onus is on us to read and study the scripture so that the Spirit can teach us. As we study and memorize the Word, the Holy Spirit will bring to our minds, to our remembrances, the things from the Word at the very time we need it. The Holy Spirit will not bring to remembrance things that are not there. But what will the Spirit teach us?
John 15:26–27 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, 27 and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
The Holy Spirit will reveal Jesus to us. “He will testify about Me.” The Spirit of Truth will testify of the One who is the Way, The Truth and the Life. As the Spirit testifies to us about Jesus, we in turn bring that same testimony to others, “and you will testify also.”
The Holy Spirit was sent to empower the Body of Christ, the Church. We are that body and it through His people that the Holy Spirit does His work. And here we see we are called to testify about Jesus the same way the Spirit of Truth testifies Jesus to us. Jesus remind us of again of this:
Acts 1:8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
We, who possess the Holy Spirit, possessing the empowerment of the Spirit, are called to testify or be a witness for Jesus in this world. (to testify and be a witness is the same root word in the Greek). Yes, The Holy Spirit will teach us and lead us. And we will have power to say things boldly even in moments of great distress:
Luke 12:11–12 When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
I’ve often wonder how I would act or what I would say in circumstances where I’m on trail for being Christian. I am not quick witted. But here Jesus tells me that the holy Spirit will instruct what to say and to do in those circumstances. I find this both amazing and reassuring. When we say that God has all under control, this means He, through His Holy Spirit will lead me, teach me, and empower and embolden me to stand in the time of trial.
So Jesus tells His Disciples that when He leaves, He will send the Holy Spirit. And on the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit came, He has been with us ever since. So what is the Spirit doing in the world today?
John 16:8–11 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
The job of the holy Spirit in the world is to “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” The HS tells and exposes the world about their sin, their lack of righteousness and warns of the judgment to come. But there is a big gap between conviction and conversion; conviction is necessary for conversion, but conviction by itself is not enough – it is not enough to know you are lost. At some point, God, through the Holy Spirit informs people of their lost-ness, but the problem is most people fail to act on that information.
The Holy Spirit convicts the world by His very presence – He is here because the world rejected Jesus. He is here in place of the rejected Jesus.
The Holy Spirit convicts on three levels: Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment.
The biggest sin, the eternal sin that will convict people to everlasting torment and separation from God is the lack of belief in Jesus. “concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.” No one goes to hell because they had smoked, drank, cussed, and caroused. They go to hell because they reject Jesus. Belief in Jesus – not a belief about Jesus. All other sin can be forgiven, except the sin of unbelief. (we are not dealing with the “unforgivable sin” here. This is a subject for another time) If the Holy Spirit is resisted and a person refuses to submit to the conviction that the Holy Spirit brings and unbelief in Jesus continues, then that person stand condemned.
John 3:18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
They are convicted by the Holy Spirit concerning righteousness. “and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me.” (verse 16:10) The world believes in relative righteousness. I’m better than the next guy. The Jew though that Jesus was unrighteous – so they hung Jesus on a tree and that was their proof Jesus was unrighteous:
Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”—
Paul is quoting from Deuteronomy 21:23 Jesus became sin for us – and because God (who cannot look upon sin), raised Jesus from the dead and now Jesus has gone to Father – proving His righteousness and the world’s unrighteousness. The world cannot stand to see pure righteousness – consider the stoning of Stephen:
Acts 7:51 “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.
Stephen accused the Jews of resisting the Holy Spirit – and that is what the world does, they do not want to hear about sin, being told they are sinful – not good enough, saying the are lost and stand condemned before God.
Acts 7:54 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.
Stephen’s words from God penetrated – this is the Holy Spirit convicting. This is the Holy Spirit exposing their sin and their unrighteousness. So what did they do?
Acts 7:57–58a But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. 58 When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him;
They killed the messenger but not the message.
And of Judgment: “concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” (verse 16:11) Of Judgment: Who is the ruler of this world? Satan is the current ruler and he will be taken out.
John 12:31 Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.
Satan was defeated at the cross – and from our view point, Satan is just waiting for the execution of his sentence. Rebellious people take notice! Fear the Lord, the one who has power to judge.
Acts 17:30–31 Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
When we talk of biblical judgment – we’re not talking about a trial – because the world stand condemned right now, all those who have not repented and been born again stand condemned now. We’re talking about the execution of the sentence.
So where do we stand today? Do we stand with the world, convicted of sin, condemned, waiting for the execution of our sentence of hell. Or have we acted on that conviction of sin. Fallen on our face before the Lord in remorse and repentance, begging the Lord to save, because nothing short of God grace will save us. Believers have been given the Holy Spirit to seal their salvation.
Romans 8:9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
Do you have the Spirit? Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior and received the Holy Spirit as the seal to your salvations? Where do you stand today? Are you under conviction by the Holy Spirit? Do not be like the Jews who stoned Stephen and resist the Holy Spirit. They covered their ears and did not want to hear any more. The Spirit does not go where He is not wanted. In fact the Bible teaches that at some point the Spirit will no longer convict. And in Romans 1 it says God will give some over to a depraved mind. What a scary thought. The Scriptures also say “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 3:7-8) and “Behold, now is the Day of Salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2b).
