The Wind of God
The Holy Ghost • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
John 1:1–5 (ESV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The Wind
The Wind
The wind of God represents the presence of God.
The breath of God represents the life giving, life sustaining power of God.
John 3:8 (ESV)
8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Hebrews 1:7 (ESV)
7 Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.”
Hebrews–Revelation (Commentary)
Psalm 104 is a creation psalm that personifies stormy winds and lightning as the Lord’s obedient messengers, serving his sovereign purpose. In Hebrew and in Greek one word (ruakh and pneuma, respectively) refers both to physical winds and to immaterial spirits. Our preacher capitalizes on this providential linguistic ambiguity to argue that, as winds and lightning serve God’s purposes in nature, so God’s spiritual messengers also fill a servant’s role.
The Holy Spirit in the New Testament
The Holy Spirit in the New Testament
Matthew 1:18 (ESV)
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 3:11 (ESV)
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Matthew 12:28 (ESV)
28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Matthew 12:31–32 (ESV)
31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
Matthew–Luke (Commentary)
Matthew–Luke (Commentary)
The difference hinges on the distinct work of the Holy Spirit, who convicts of sin and testifies to Jesus’ person and work. To reject Jesus is not terminal, but to reject the Spirit’s testimony to him is. Sins of ignorance are pardonable. The case of Paul, blasphemer, persecutor, and apostle proves this. This implies that blasphemy against the Spirit must be a deliberate act. Hebrews 6:4–6 and 1 John 2:18–24 suggest it is a sober, measured rejection of Jesus against all the evidence, which the blasphemer has both heard and felt. Both passages describe people with extensive knowledge of the truth. They have once “been enlightened, … have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away” (Heb. 6:4–6).
Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Holy Spirit)
Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Holy Spirit)
The first act of the spirit is to send Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the →devil. The words used by the evangelists are indicative of their respective ideas of the relationship between Jesus and the spirit.
In Luke 4:1 Jesus is the subject of the clause: he returns full of the spirit (plērēs pneumatos hagiou, in Acts 6:3, 5, 8; 7:55; 11:24 used to describe permanent endowment with the spirit) and he is led in, not into, the wilderness under the influence of the spirit (en tōi pneumati, a less explicit phrase than those of Mark and Matthew).
This picture of a spirit-endowed prophet is also reflected in Luke: Jesus returns to Galilee endowed with the power of the spirit (en dynamei pneumatos 4:14) and in the synagogue of Nazareth he identifies himself as the spirit-anointed prophet of Isa 61:1.
The common element in these texts is that Jesus drives out →demons through the spirit and to ascribe this to Beelzebul is an unforgivable sin. The spirit both authorizes and empowers Jesus to drive out the demons (cf. Luke 4:36). Their overthrow is proof of the presence of the kingdom of God and, implicitly, of the power of the spirit through Jesus.
In Matthew and Luke the story of Jesus’ public ministry is preceded by stories about his birth in which the spirit plays an important part.
The Lucan version, however, is more explicit: the spirit comes upon Mary (eperchomai) as upon the disciples at Pentecost (Acts 1:8; the actual story has ‘filled with the holy spirit’, 2:4). The overshadowing (episkiazein) of Mary by the power of the Most High recalls the cloud which overshadows Jesus and those with him in the transfiguration story (Mark 9:7 and par.) and the cloud overshadowing the tent of meeting and the →glory of God filling the tent (Exod 40:35 LXX; Num 9:18; 10:34–36, cf. Deut 33:12 LXX; Isa 4:5). These parallels refer to the active presence of God in a general way but not to anything near the conception of a human or divine being as in Luke 1:34. The association of the spirit with conception cannot therefore be explained in terms of this usage, nor in terms of the divine spirit overshadowing and obscuring nous when entering a human person (Philo, Somn I 119, see LEISEGANG 1922:25–27). Whatever the origin and background of this image, the intention of both statements in Matt 1:18 and Luke 1:34 is to connect Jesus with the spirit from his conception on.
The experience of the spirit is one of the most characteristic features in the life of the earliest Christian communities. The promise of its coming, recorded in the gospel tradition.
Luke 4:1 (ESV)
1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness
33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’
John 3:5–6 (ESV)
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
John 3:34 (ESV)
34 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.
John 4:23–24 (ESV)
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 6:63 (ESV)
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
John 7:39 (ESV)
39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 14:17 (ESV)
17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
John 20:22 (ESV)
22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.