Sermon Tone Analysis

THE GHOST

THE GHOST

THE PRESENCE OF THE HOLY

PART 1

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

INTRODUCTION

Good morning Southpointe, we are starting this brand new series called The Ghost.

We are not going to be talking about Casper the friendly ghost, or anything relating to that subject.

But we are going to dealing with the Holy Ghost.

What a time we are going to have thru this series.

Let’s get started!!

He descends like a dove, He baptizes with fire, He comforts, guides and corrects; He is the Spirit of life, that sense of truth, the voice of God.

When you are alone, lost and afraid, He will carry you home.

Over and over again, the Bible mentions the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost.

In fact, the Spirit of God is mentioned over 800 times in scripture.

The Spirit of God is mentioned in the very second verse of the entire Bible.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

This word that is translated as Spirit‚ in the Old Testament is the word ‚Äòruwach‚Äô (roo‚Äô-akh); very literally, it means a wind or a breath, but not a normal breath, it means a violent exhalation, a blast of breath.

This word that is translated as ‘Spirit’ in the Old Testament is the word ‘ruwach’ (roo’-akh); very literally, it means a wind or a breath, but not a normal breath, it means a violent exhalation, a blast of breath.

The Holy Spirit comes with power.In the New Testament, the Greek word that is translated as ‘Spirit’ is the word ‘pneuma’ (pnyoo’-mah); it means a wind, a current of air, a blast of breath.

In the Old Testament times, the Spirit of God would actually descend upon people and then it would often depart.

You can read very clearly that the Spirit of God was with Saul and it would leave Saul.

The same with David; when David sinned against God with Bathsheba, he cried out to God; “Please don’t take your Spirit from me.”

In the New Testament though, once Jesus left, He sent us His Holy Spirit.

For those who are believers in Christ,the Holy Spirit will never, ever leave us, nor forsake us.

The Holy Spirit comes with power.

In the New Testament, the Greek word that is translated as Spirit is the word ‘pneuma’ (pnyoo’-mah); it means a wind, a current of air, a blast of breath.

The Holy Spirit comes with power.In the New Testament, the Greek word that is translated as ‘Spirit’ is the word ‘pneuma’ (pnyoo’-mah); it means a wind, a current of air, a blast of breath.

In the Old Testament times, the Spirit of God would actually descend upon people and then it would often depart.

You can read very clearly that the Spirit of God was with Saul and it would leave Saul.

The same with David; when David sinned against God with Bathsheba, he cried out to God; “Please don’t take your Spirit from me.”

In the New Testament though, once Jesus left, He sent us His Holy Spirit.

For those who are believers in Christ,the Holy Spirit will never, ever leave us, nor forsake us.

In the Old Testament times, the Spirit of God would actually descend upon people and then it would often depart.

You can read very clearly that the Spirit of God was with Saul and it would leave Saul.

The same with David; when David sinned against God with Bathsheba, he cried out to God;

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

In the New Testament, you can see the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus in the form of a dove.

ÄúPlease don‚Äôt take your Spirit from me.‚Äù

In the New Testament though, once Jesus left, He sent us His Holy Spirit.

For those who are believers in Christ,the Holy Spirit will never, ever leave us, nor forsake us.

In the New Testament, you can see the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus in the form of a dove.

You can see the Holy Spirit falling on the people of God at the Pentecost, empowering them to speak in other tongues, and do all sorts of miraculous works.

You see the Holy Spirit empowering people with spiritual gifts to live a supernatural life in a very natural world, and you see the Holy Spirit giving people the fruits of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control.

So many people live a Spirit-less life when God wants you to live a Spirit-filled and Spirit-powered life.

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.Well, if you have your Bibles today, let’s open them up to John in the New Testament; John Chapter 14 today.

We are starting the new series called; ‘The Ghost’, as we look at the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Spirit.

Now, I don’t know about you all, but when I was growing up, whenever I heard about the Holy Ghost, that kind of weirded me out!

Yeah, I understood God the Father, makes sense.

I have a Father, God the Son Jesus; I’ve seen pictures of Jesus, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jesus picture.

Then, there was the Holy Ghost, orthe Holy Spirit and that just seemed really weird to me; I couldn’t understand it, I didn’t know what that was about.

In fact, whenever I heard about a church that was way into the Holy Ghost, they were usually weird according to my opinion.

They would be people with buns, you know, with their hair up and tambourines everywhere and people speaking in weird languages; that just seemed very foreign, something that I didn’t understand.

So, if they had the Holy Ghost that seemed very, very unusual and weird to me, which I think a lot of people have possibly had similar experiences, which really has really led in my opinion, to a pendulum swing when it comes to the Holy Spirit.

In all sorts of ministries, there would be some, where the pendulum swings tookwhat I would call an over-emphasis.

In other places, there would be what I would call a gross under-emphasis.

When it comes to the Holy Ghost, there are some that would actually over-emphasize the Holy Ghost; everything is, Holy Ghost, come, Holy Ghost, Holy Ghost, Holy Ghost!

And, if something odd happens, like maybe just a Bible would just fall off a ledge, they might say; “I bind you, demon of Bible falling Holy Ghost, get those demons out of here!”

And there is just an over-emphasis, everything, everything, everything Holy Ghost.

But, what is probably a far more common problem is an under-emphasis.

We understand God the Father, and then there is God the Son; and then there is that other guy, the one we don’t talk about, kind of like a weird cousinEddy, that nobody brings up at family meals.

It’s, I don’t understand, I know there is the Trinity and all and I know there is a Holy Spirit.

But, when you think about Holy Spirit, it is usually for those weird people over there, and not us; over-emphasis, or under-emphasis.

What we would like to do in the next few weeks is to get a Biblical understanding on who exactly is the Holy Spirit, and what role does He play in the life of believers.

So, we are going to start in John, Chapter 14; and we aregoing to look at some of the words of Jesus today to build a foundational understanding and I pray within the next few weeks, that we would all grow to know, even more intimately the presence of God and His Power, through His Holy Spirit.John, Chapter 14, we will start in verse 16; the words of Jesus as He was comforting His disciples, explaining that He was going to go away, build mansions for them in Heaven, but He was going to send someone that would be even better than Him and He said this; “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you,” (not for a little while) “He will be with you forever.”

(Who is this Counselor?)

Verse 17 shows us the Counselor is the Holy Spirit; he calls the Counselor the Spirit of Truth.Then, Scripture says, and this really relates to me as a child; “The world cannot accept him,” (the Holy Spirit) “Because it neither sees him nor knows him.”

Which is kind of where I was, I was skeptical, I didn’t understand that whole Spirit thing, the Holy Ghost thing, I didn’t know him, couldn’t see him, and therefore did not accept him.

But, Jesus goes on to say, “But you know him, for he lives with you,” (and then here is his promise, and his promise is...) “He will be in you.”

The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, you know him and he will be in you and with you.

Now, what is interesting to me is first of all, the Holy Spirit is not an ‘it’.

Sometimes people will say, “Well, ‘it’s’ leading me to do something.”

Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as Him, it is the third person of God in the Trinity; it is very literally God in Spirit form.

So, when you read about the Holy Spirit in Scripture, you find that you can actually grieve the Holy Spirit.

You see, the Spirit as God inSpirit form has emotions.

The Bible says the Holy Spirit loves you and Jesus is gonna say, “I’m going to go away and send the Spirit to be within you and he calls him a Counselor; which comes from the Greek word, ‘parakletos’ (par-ak-lay-tos); or the root word is the word, ‘paraklete’.

It comes from two words; para, which means along side of, like paralegal to come along side, or para church, not a church, but to come along side the church.

And, kletos comes from the Greek word kaleo, which we’ve studied before; it means ‘called’.

Very literally, the paraklete, the Holy Spirit, is the one who is called alongside of, or to be inside of the believer in Jesus.

Who is the parakletos?

If you are looking in your notes, very literally this word can be translated as an ‘intercessor’.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

He is the one who intercedes, or prays for you.

He is also your Counselor.

The Holy Spirit is your advocate before God.

He is your Comforter, He is your helper; the parakletos.

God in Spirit form, who is called along side of you, or inside of you to be your Comforter, to be your Counselor, to be your Intercessor, to be your Helper; very literally, to be your friend.

Now, when I think about a choice between Jesus in the flesh, or the Holy Spirit; my first thought is, I’m going to take Jesus with me.

Now, imagine this; imagine if Jesus were walking along in physical form on the earth today, how cool would that be?

Think about it, you get a head ache, you’re like, “Jesus, my head hurts”....poof!

Your head doesn’t hurt anymore, I mean that is cool, he could do that!

Your dog gets run over by a car and is killed.

You’re like, “Jesus, Fido’s dead.”

And Jesus goes, “Fido live!” And, Fido lives and barks and runs off!

That’sawesome!

Your cat gets run over by a car, and Jesus, on the spot can do the funeral right there!

Bury that cat!

Just joking!