The Holy Spirit Series

The Holy Spirit

Series: CREED: Truths that Unite

Brad Bailey – February 28, 2021

Intro...

I want to add my warm welcome to each of you. We are continuing our weekly engagement with the central truths that are identified in what has been called The Apostles Creed. These are the truths... that were affirmed from the earliest records we have following the earthly ministry of Jesus.

As we noted when we began our weekly series... these truths have the power to center us... to form us...and to unite us.

And each week we are starting by first having different members read the creed... which we can say aloud as well by following the words we will put up.

And today it’s a pleasure to welcome Rene and Jeanette Chun [1]

[Creed read. See Note 1]

Thanks Rene and Jeanette.

The creed begins with God...the Father almighty... creator of heaven and earth.

It continues with Jesus Christ... God the Son... and some essential truths about Jesus.

Today.... we have come to the next declaration...

I believe in the Holy Spirit

Here we are affirming what is often referred to as the third person in the Trinity... of the unique nature by which God has revealed Himself as One God... yet eternally relating as three united persons.... Father Son AND Spirit.

The Creed moves from the creating work of the Father to the rescuing work of the Son, and then to the recreating work of the Holy Spirit.

Now to many of us... this may sound simple and straightforward. The Western world has long been familiar with God being revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the ministry of the Holy Spirit is valuable part of our life as a Vineyard... a part of our DNA.

But if we can step back... we can appreciate that there is something more mysterious about the nature of the Holy Spirit.

Some have made the role of the Holy Spirit very secondary... a strange mystery to be set outside what really matters. I believe that tragically misses what Jesus actually said to his followers and all who follow. The truth is that far from being secondary... Jesus concludes his earthly ministry telling his disciples... the third person of the Trinity...the Spirit of God...was going to come in a new way...and it would change everything. So lets pause right now...and ask God to help us to understand what it means to believe in the Holy Spirit.

PRAYER. It was vital and proved vitalizing. It was essential and empowering... the Holy Spirit which bears great news for each of us

It’s important to understand that when declare that we believe in the Holy Spirit...we are speaking of a part of our God which is actually spoken of far more than we may realize. The Spirit is referred to 142 times in the Old Testament using 15 different terms, and 256 times in the New Testament using 7 different terms but all referring to this part of who God is. [2]

What we find is that The Spirit is actually spoken of from the very beginning in major but more mysterious ways...but then emerges to the forefront when Jesus ... as the Son of God...has ascended back to heaven and sends the Spirit to take the role of connecting us with God in a new way.

The Spirit is referred to in the very opening of the Bible... as we are told of God as creator of everything.... and while the description is rather poetically brief... it says that it was the Spirit that was manifesting the will of God. We read in Genesis one...

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. - Genesis 1:1-2

The second sentence in all of Scripture reveals the power of the Holy Spirit already at work in the beginning. The Hebrew words used to communicate the Holy Spirit’s role in creation are that of the breath of God... and reflect the Spirit as the source of divine energy at work in the formation of creation.

Some even suggest that what is being described is the Spirit... creating waves of gravitational energy and waves of electro-magnetic energy that coalesce and form the material and planetary life. [3] And then we come to the unique life that is given to we as humans. We read...

Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Genesis 2:7 (NLT)

The word for breathe here is the same as the word as spirit... it is the energizing animating power of God. Into human life... God breathes His Spirit and gave us spiritual life... a spiritual nature...that gae us a connection to God who is Spirit. As Job would later declare in the Scriptures...