#2: Who Is the Holy Spirit?

I. Introduction
A. We saw three weeks ago how Jesus’ twelve disciples before Pentecost contrasted so strikingly with the same twelve men after Pentecost. We concluded that whatever it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, it makes all the difference in the world in a person’s life.
B. Last week in my Easter sermon, we saw how Jesus told the disciples that the era of His fleshly, bodily presence with them was over, but that the era of the Spirit was about to begin (Luke 24:44, 49).
C. The NT bears out this significance of the coming of the Spirit. In the NT the Christian life is a life of the Spirit. We are to be filled with the Spirit, we are to walk in the Spirit, we are to never grieve the Spirit, we are to be led by the Spirit, we are to keep in step with the Spirit, we are to have the joy of the Spirit, we are to go forth in the power of the Spirit, we are sealed by the Spirit, we are supposed to bear the fruits of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is said to live within us, to convict us of sin, to enlighten our eyes and change our hearts.
D. We have seen that we should be seeking the Holy Spirit and His work in our lives. Our task in this sermon is to begin figuring out what the Bible says about who the Holy Spirit is.
II. The Person of the Holy Spirit
A. Most people know the Holy Spirit to be the third person of the Trinity. And we understand the concept of the Trinity, that God in one sense is one and in another sense is three: one in substance, three in person.
B. But let’s talk a little about why we believe this.
1. In the OT, it is revealed very strongly that God is one: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one (Deut.6:4).
2. But, as it turns out, it isn’t quite that simple. In the Bible, especially in the NT, there is also differentiation in God.
3. The Son is spoken of as God (e.g. His own claims to deity, His divine attributes, His divine names, the divine worship He accepted, and by references to His deity), and the Holy Spirit is spoken of as God (e.g. divine characteristics are attributed to Him, and there are many references to the Spirit as divine – Gen.1:2-3; Job 33:4; Ps. 104:30).
4. It was clear that there could not be three Gods. And yet it was clear that in addition to the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit were both God. And yet it was also clear that they were distinct persons from God the Father as well.
a. In particular, there are many references in the NT that speak of the Spirit as a person.
(1) For instance, when Jesus speaks of the coming of the Helper (or Paraclete) in John14-16, He repeatedly uses the masculine Greek pronoun, “he,” even though the word spirit is a neuter noun that would ordinarily take a neuter pronoun. Apparently God wants it to be perfectly clear to all that this Spirit is a “he” and not an “it.”
(2) Not only this, but the Spirit is said to hear, to speak, to convince, to lead, to guide, to teach, to command, to forbid, to desire, to give help, to be lied to, to be grieved and to intercede for God’s people, all of which point to the fact that He is a person.
(3) So it seems clear that the Spirit is not an impersonal force, nor some kind of mystical influence. He is a distinct person, equal to the Father and the Son in deity, one with them in essence. (We should never call Him “it.”)
C. This distinction between the Spirit, the Father, and the Son can be seen when Jesus is baptized: the Father is speaking from heaven, the Spirit is coming down in the form of a dove, upon Jesus the Son.
1. We also see it in John 14:16 when Jesus (the Son) says, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (the Holy Spirit), that He may be with you forever.”
2. There are even some Trinitarian formulations:
a. Matthew 28:19: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
b. 2Cor.13:14: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.”
c. 1Pet.1:1-2: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those ...who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood...”
d. (For others, see 1Cor.12:4-6; Eph.1:3-13; 2:18; 3:14-19; 4:4-6; 2Thes.2:13-14.)
III. The Special Role of the Holy Spirit
A. The three persons of the Trinity sometimes are spoken of participating in the same works, e.g the creation:
1. God (the Father): Gen.1:1; Prov.3:19; Jer.32:17; Heb.11:3; Rev.4:11
2. Son: John 1:3; Col.1:16; Heb.1:2
3. Spirit: Gen.1:2; Job 33:4; Ps.104:30
B. But at times they are also said to have different roles. For instance, we know that Jesus is the One who was incarnated into human flesh and who came in order to die as an atoning sacrifice for sin.
C. So then, what is distinctive about the role of the Holy Spirit?
D. One good way to understand the distinctive roles between the Father, Son and Spirit is in locational terms.
1. The Scriptures speak of the Father as in heaven on His throne. Even when He speaks, He speaks out of heaven.
2. The Son, having left the Father in order to dwell among us, He has now returned to heaven and sits at the Father’s right hand.
3. And the Spirit comes down from God to deal with men, to work in the lives of men. The Spirit is the member of the Trinity who is constantly involved in dealing with us where we are. You don’t hear very much about the Holy Spirit being in heaven. You hear about the Spirit coming down from heaven to work with human beings.
E. What does it mean that the Holy Spirit is “down here with us”? Well, we must understand that locational language about God is always analogous, just as body language about God is analogous.
1. God does not actually have a physical body. And yet there is a meaning to the Bible’s body language about God, like when we read about God’s mighty arm or how His eyes roam to and fro upon the earth.
2. Imagine a Sunday School teacher asking the little kids in the class: Where is God?
a. One student says: God is everywhere.
b. Another says: He’s in our hearts.
c. And yet another says: He’s in heaven.
d. Which one is right? All three.
e. But the most accurate thing to say about God’s location is that He doesn’t have a location.
f. The fact is that God is not limited by time or space. So in an absolute sense we can’t speak of God being here or God being there. Ultimately locational language cannot be used of God in any literal sense.
g. Remember what Solomon said after He built the temple? “Will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!” (1Kings 8:27 NKJV) Even when God is said to be in heaven, it doesn’t mean that actually there is a location called heaven that contains God. God cannot be contained.
F. What is meant then by locational language about God?
1. When it says that God came and was in the burning bush, what does that mean?
2. Or when the Lord filled the temple?
3. Or when the Holy Spirit lives within us?
G. When locational language is used of God in the Bible it seems to me that it must mean that God is manifesting His presence in a certain place.
1. For instance, when it says that the Lord filled the temple, it means that God manifested His presence in the temple, He showed His presence in the temple. It’s not that He was actually located there as opposed to somewhere else. It is that He was displaying Himself there in a way He wasn’t displaying Himself everywhere else.
2. God is invisible (1Timothy 1:17 “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible...” -NKJV). We can’t see Him with our eyes. But He can make a bush burn without being consumed and speak with a voice out of that bush to Moses. And when He does manifest His power in this way, it is as if Moses sees God Himself. But ultimately those flames observed by Moses are not God, for God Himself can’t be seen.
3. When God appears in the OT temple in the form of the glory cloud, He is displaying His glory, He is demonstrating His splendor and His closeness to His people (closeness in a relational sense, of course, not in a spacial sense).
4. And the same thing is true when it says that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. It’s not that we are actually locationally inhabited by the person of the Holy Spirit. We are spiritually inhabited, and relationally inhabited.
H. And this is why we can talk of having more of the Holy Spirit or less of the Holy Spirit.
1. Have you ever heard someone say, “You either have the Holy Spirit or don’t have the Spirit. You can’t have a little of Him or a lot of Him!”
2. This is why that’s not true. The Bible can say that one Christian like Stephen stood out from the others as a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 6:5). The point is that Stephen was a man in whom God’s glory and grace could be clearly seen (compare Acts 6:8). There was a very special manifestation of God in that man, more than in most of the others around him.
3. And this is why Ephesians 5:18 urges believers to be filled with the Spirit.
I. The language of the Spirit coming down from God, then, doesn’t mean that the Spirit is located down here while the Father and the Son are located up there somewhere. It means that the Spirit’s work involves dealing directly with mankind, working in our lives, opening our eyes to the things of God. He represents God to us personally and experientially.
J. You can see this special role of the Spirit in the benediction of 2Cor.13:14: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.”
1. This word for fellowship here in the Greek is KOINONIA, meaning communion, commonness, sharing.
2. Here’s the point: The Holy Spirit is the divine instrument who helps us to know the heart of God, who helps us to see how intimate He is with His beloved, the One through whom we experience the love of God and closeness with God. He is the One who communicates spiritual good to us. He is the channel by which God’s grace flows into our lives.
3. The Holy Spirit is also the One who regenerates human hearts. Remember that Jesus said to Nicodemus: “You must be born again.” and then reworded that by saying, “You must be born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5,6,8) But the Spirit also continues this work begun at regeneration, drawing us ever closer to Christ, filling us with righteous desires, giving us grief over our sin, giving us an appetite for Christ and for His word and a love for His people. “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” – these are the fruits of His work in us (Gal.5:22-23).
IV. Conclusion
A. The work of Christ in one sense is done (until He returns). Now is the age of the Spirit’s work. (Though it’s perfectly appropriate to say that Jesus is at work through His Spirit, or God the Father is at work through His Spirit.)
B. Isn’t this just what we need? Oh sure, there are many things we need. But this is the thing we need more than anything else. We need a change of heart. We need to have certainty about God’s presence with us. We need to have our appetites adjusted.
C. You could send out a million missionaries, you could fill every pulpit with a godly Bible preacher. But if the Holy Spirit isn’t at work, it will all be in vain.
D. Our countryside is filled with churches. Unprecedented numbers of Christian books are being published. Our hymnals are full of great songs. There are seminars and conferences and meetings.
1. And yet the question is: are the people of God filled with Christ?
2. Are they heavenly-minded instead of earthly-minded?
3. Is interest in the word of God increasing and is prayer being done in earnest?
4. Are the people of Christ growing in the fruits of the Spirit?
5. If not, why not? Our hearts are not filled with the Holy Spirit!
E. The greatest lack in the American church today is not volunteers or preachers or seminaries or Bibles or money. Our greatest lack is the Holy Spirit. His work is the thing we most need. It’s not by great programs or by powerful orators or by worldly gimmicks that a new spirit of joy and hope and godliness and love will be born in the church. For it is “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the LORD of hosts in Zechariah 4:6.
F. So,what do you want?
1. Do you want a heart which is alive to God?
2. Do you want a heart filled with Christ ?
3. Do you want eyes opened to the glory of His face?
4. Do you want a heart which despises sin?
5. Do you want the will to do God’s will ?
6. Do you want a heart which burns with delight seeing the beautiful truth of God’s word?
7. Do you want a clean heart?
8. Do you want a heart filled with the joy of the Spirit?
9. Do you want to go forth in the power of the Spirit?
10. Do you want a life filled with the fruits of the Spirit?
11. Do you want a heart which grasps the weight of your sin but also the surpassing power of the cross?
12. Do you want to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength?
13. Then you need the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart and life!
14. Spiritual growth is not a matter of human effort, but of divine transformation.
G. That’s why I’m doing this series. That’s why we need to pray and seek the Spirit’s work in our hearts and lives.
H. The language is important. In the past God was with His people, but now He is in His people. As Jesus said to His disciples in John 14:17 “He dwells with you, and will be in you.”
1. God is so present with us to help us and transform us, that the language He uses to describe His presence is that He indwells us (1Cor.6:19; 2Cor.6:16; Ezekiel 36:27; 2Timothy 1:14; Romans 8:9, 15; Galatians 4:6).