Who Is The Holy Spirit And What Does He Do?

Text: 1 Corinthians 2:1-16

Title: Who is the Holy Spirit and what does he do?

Let me begin by saying it is not easy being the Holy Spirit!

It is not easy being the Holy Spirit because verse 14 tells us so.

“The man without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

It is not easy being the Holy Spirit since he has a history of being;

1. Resisted.

“The man without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God”

2. Ridiculed.

“For they are foolishness to him”

3. Misunderstood.

“And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned”

Therefore it is completely understandable that of the three; The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit we are the least knowledgeable about the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit.

This morning we want to look at who the Holy Spirit is and what the Holy Spirit does?

Lets begin by answering the question “Who is the Holy Spirit?”

The simple answer is that the Holy Spirit is God.

The Proof

If we look at our scripture passage we see that the words God and Spirit are interchangeable or one and the same. For example;

In verse 4 and 5 we see that the Spirit’s power is also called God’s power.

In verse 11 we see that the very thoughts of God are the very thoughts of the Spirit

The second thing we need to see is that the Holy Spirit is not some impersonal force.

He speaks to us

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him- but God has revealed it by his Spirit” (V9-10)

He searches all things

“The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God” (V10)

He knows the thoughts of God

“In the same way nobody knows the thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God” (V11)

He teaches us what God has freely given us.

“This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.” (V13)

What does the Holy Spirit do?

1. He empowers us to share our testimony (V1-5)

“When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”

Unlikely as it may seem the apostle Paul experienced all of the same difficulties we face when it comes to sharing our faith.

In verse 1 he was not eloquent nor did he have superior wisdom.

In verse 3 he confesses he came to them in weakness, fear and with much trembling.

And he begins verse 4 by saying “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words…”

Can we see that Paul could identify with every objection we have for not sharing our faith.

And it’s only because you and I are not qualified that we are given the Spirit’s power to share the gospel with others.

“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.” (V4)

If we can only believe verse 4 it will set us free to share our faith in the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit.

If not feeling qualified would be one of the biggest objection to sharing our faith what would be another?

What do we say?

“When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.”

Can we see who should be the central figure in any testimony we share? God!

We have to be careful that we don’t make the mistake of putting something else at the center of our testimony.The most important thing to share with someone is about what God has done for us.

God has done a lot for us but we see that in verse 2 the apostle Paul gives us the answer to what is the most important thing God has done for us.

“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (V2)

According to the Apostle Paul the most important thing God has done was the crucifixion of his son Jesus for our sins.