Six Things To Learn About The Holy Spirit

THIS IS A FAMILY SERVICE SO THIS ‘TALK’ IS MEANT TO BE SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN AND QUITE INTERACTIVE.

The scripture quotations are from the International Children’s Bible.

Today’s an important day in the Christian calendar. It’s day for celebrating! It isn’t Christmas. It isn’t Easter. So, what is today? Why are we celebrating?

At Easter, we remember that Jesus died and rose again. But move on 50 days and we come to another festival. It’s called ‘Pentecost’. The word comes from a Greek word meaning ‘fiftieth’. Fifty days after Jesus rose, God poured out his Holy Spirit on Jesus’ disciples. That’s what we’re celebrating today. What’s it all about? We’re going to find out.

To help us, I’ve got six verses and lots of visual aids.

1 THREE PERSONS

God created the world. He created the sky and the earth. He created the large sea animals and every living thing that moves in the sea. Then God plans to create human beings. But before he does so, God says:

“Let us make human beings in our image and likeness” [Genesis 1:26].

Do you think there’s something strange in what God says? Why do you think God says, ‘Let US make human beings in OUR image and likeness’?

Somehow, the people who wrote the book of Genesis knew that God was made up of more than one person. Many, many years later, in Jesus’ time, some people understood that God is made up of three persons. For example, Jesus said:

‘So go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize them in the name of THE FATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT’ [Matthew 28:19].

But how can ONE GOD be made of three persons?

VISUAL AID 1: water, ice and steam are different, but they are all forms of water.

VISUAL AID 2: an egg is made of the shell, the yolk and the white. They are different but they all form one egg.

AUDIO AID: Jo plays three notes and then plays a chord. Jo played three different notes, but they formed one chord.

That is like God. God is made up of three persons, but he is still one God.

2 THE PERSONS HAVE DIFFERENT ROLES

We often think of God the Father as the creator. We often think of Jesus as our saviour. What about the Holy Spirit? What is the Holy Spirit’s special role? Before Jesus was crucified, he told his disciples he would send the Holy Spirit. He said this:

‘I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper. He will give you this Helper to be with you forever. The Helper is the Spirit of truth’ [John 14:16-17a].

Jesus said the Holy Spirit would be our HELPER.

VISUAL AID 3: PowerPoint slide of books with the idea of the Holy Spirit as our HELPER.

Some versions of the Bible use other words. Some use the word ‘friend.’ I like that idea. A friend is someone you have a very close relationship with; someone you trust and who trusts you. That is certainly true of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would be with us forever.

3 WHAT ELSE CAN WE SAY ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT?

Jesus once talked with his disciples about the Holy Spirit. He told them:

‘The wind blows where it wants to go. You hear the wind blow. But you don’t know where the wind comes from or where it is going. It is the same with every person who is born from the Spirit’ [John 3:8].

VISUAL AID 4: A fan blows away some paper.

VISUAL AID 5: Bernoulli demonstration with two balloons.

You can see how the wind from the fan blew the paper away. You could also see how a little bit of wind made the balloons move.

We can’t see the wind. Sometimes, we can hear it. But the wind has a force. It can move things. That’s what the Holy Spirit is like. The Holy Spirit is an unseen but powerful helper and friend.

Let’s now look at what happened on the day of Pentecost. This is how Luke described it, in the book of Acts:

‘When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a noise came from heaven. It sounded like a strong wind blowing. This noise filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw something that looked like flames of fire. The flames were separated and stood over each person there’ [Acts 2:1-3].

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit was like a wind and now, Jesus’ disciples heard a sound like a strong wind! They also saw what looked like flames of fire. The tongues of fire were a great picture of God’s presence resting on his disciples. What does the fire mean? Fire gives light and it gives warmth. We like those ideas. But fire also burns up. We might not like that idea so much. But it’s a picture of the fact that the Holy Spirit works like a fire inside us, burning up what is impure.