Meet The Holy Spirit (Holy Spirit #1)

Introduction:

As we begin there are two difficulties that we need to address

Our Task is Big
Our Knowledge is Small

“Because the Spirit is mysterious, we are vulnerable to superstitions and distortions of His person and work. Here we must listen carefully to Scripture as it reveals to us the character of God the Holy Spirit.” (Sproul, 1990)
“…The average Christian, deep down, is in a complete fog as to what work the Holy Spirit does.” (Packer, 1993)

Who is the Holy Spirit?

“The Trinity is one God who eternally exists as three distinct persons—Father, Son, and Spirit—who are each fully and equally God.” Mark Driscoll

“The Holy Spirit is a divine person, one of the three persons of the Trinity.” (Cottrell, 2002)
Sometimes the Holy Spirit is referred to as the third member of the Trinity.

Two points: these are going to seem a bit obvious but they are important.

The Holy Spirit is spirit

"God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”" (John 4:24)
"…every spiritual being is living, personal, nonmaterial, and invisible. All these characteristics apply to the Holy Spirit.” (Cottrell, 2002)

The Holy Spirit is holy

Holy describes both the Spirit’s nature and his work.
Holy means set apart, distinct, separate
Illustrating "holy"

Sabbath - set apart a day for rest and worship
Money in the building of the tabernacle, your gift was seperated from your normal resources

Nature: The Holy Spirit is God and as such is set apart from all created spirits
Work: The Holy Spirit will make you holy.

How does the Holy Spirit work?

“The work of the Holy Spirit is to manifest the active presence of God in the world, and especially in the church.” (Grudem, 2000)

“We shall see that the Spirit’s main work is twofold: he gives us knowledge and he gives us power.” (Cottrell, 2002)

Why do we have such difficulty understanding the Holy Spirit?

“But when I come to deal with the Holy Spirit, his operations are so mysterious, his doings are so secret, his acts are so removed from everything that is of sense, and of the body, that I cannot so easily get the idea of his being a person; but a person he is. God the Holy Spirit is not an influence, an emanation, a stream of something flowing from the Father; but he is as much an actual person as either God the Son, or God the Father.” (Spurgeon, 1855)

Three common problems with our understanding of the Holy Spirit.

Unknowing

No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” (Acts 19:2)

Uninformed (confused) (car hood illustration )

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. (1 Corinthians 12:21)

Untrue (just plain wrong)

Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 8:18-19)

Sometimes we don’t know so we just make something up

Some Application:

We need to understand that the Holy Spirit exists.
We need to seek not to just know a little bit about him but rather we need to seek a full, scriptural understanding.
There will be places in our understanding where we may just be flat out wrong, we need to, as we become aware, not hold on to those things but we need to change.

This morning I want to begin to introduce you to the Holy Spirit. There are several things that you need to know…

(1) You need to know the Holy Spirit is God

Scripture calls the Holy Spirit God

Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit… you have not lied to men but to God. (Acts 5:3-4)

The Holy Spirit exhibits divine characteristics (those things that make God, God)

The Holy Spirit is eternal (He has no beginning and no end)

How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:14)

The Holy Spirit is omniscient (He is all knowing)

These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10-11)
Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? (Isaiah 40:13)

The Holy Spirit is omnipresent (He is everywhere)

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? (Psalm 139:7, see vs. 8-12)

The Holy Spirit is omnipotent (He is all powerful)

Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah 4:6, see also Genesis 1:2, Psalm 104:30)

Furthermore, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the worst of all sins.

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 12:32)
“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” (Mark 3:28-29)

(2) You need to know the Holy Spirit is a person

“It is best to understand “person” as thinking, willing center of consciousness. “ (Cottrell 2002)

“Person” does not mean that God the Father or God the Spirit became human beings. Rather, it means that each member of the Trinity thinks, acts, feels, speaks, and relates because they are persons and not impersonal forces. Further, each member of the Trinity is equally God, which means that they share the divine attributes, such as eternality, omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. “ Mark Driscoll

The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force.

It is essential that we understand this because wrong thoughts lead to wrong actions.
Theological error (what we believe) always translates into our actions (what we do)

Snake Illustration (Justin and Brandon)

How do we know the Holy Spirit is a person?

He spoken of with other persons

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19)
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:14)
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood (1 Peter 1:2)

Illustration: who came to ______________ (list people, and electricity)

He thinks (intellectual activity)

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27)

He Speaks

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 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. (John 16:12-13)
And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” (Acts 8:29)

He Teaches

And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. (1 Corinthians 2:13)

He Loves

I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf (Romans 15:30)

He can be grieved

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30)

(3) You need to know the Holy Spirit is essential

Illustration

Radio controlled boat illustration - I removed all the extra stuff and made it go faster. We sometimes do that with our faith, those things we struggle with we often just discard.

What do you do with things you don’t need? You get rid of them

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever (John 14:16)

(we’ll deal with this in depth in the weeks to come, we’ll just address it briefly, I’ll say this – this verse will go a long way to helping us understand the Spirit)
Helper has also been translated, Comforter, Counselor, Advocate, and Friend.

In the original languages Helper (parakletos) means a counselor for the defense
Equivalent of an attorney

Another Helper

Another (allos) means “another of the same kind”
Wings Illustration - when you ask for another order of wings (it's one that's the same as the first)

Who was the first Helper?

Jesus
“In other words, the Spirit would be another Helper of the same kind as Jesus himself. “ (Cottrell, 2002)
“If, therefore, the ministry of Christ the Comforter was important, the ministry of the Holy Spirit the Comforter can scarcely be less important. If the work that Christ did matters to the church, the work that the Spirit does must matter also.” (Packer, 1993)
We often criticize those who minimized or ignored Jesus, where does that put us when we do the same thing to the Holy Spirit

(4) You need to know the Holy Spirit is at work.

(Once again we will deal with this in more detail in the coming weeks… I only want to focus on one aspect of the Holy Spirit’s work.)

The Holy Spirit, along with the other members of the Trinity, was involved in the creation of this world.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:2)

God creates out of nothing (ex nihilo)
Spirit hovers (to be close) Deuteronomy 32:11
The Holy Spirit is involved in creation
Bring order out of chaos
As we get to know the Holy Spirit we will find that he is at work in our lives. Sustaining us, changing us, and generally bringing order out of chaos.

Invitation has two parts

Part #1 Psalm 51:7-12

Situation

Verses

What you find is that sin stands between you and God.

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The problem is not sin
The problem is sin that we hold on to

Part #2

Acts 2:38

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”