#3: Why Study the Holy Spirit?

I. Introduction
A. Review of first two weeks
1. First sermon: the dramatic transformation which the coming of the Holy Spirit produced in the disciples. It was entitled: “We Need What the Disciples Got.” We talked about how before Pentecost, the disciples were a lot like you and me. After Pentecost, they were suddenly spiritual dynamos. And it all goes back to the Holy Spirit, who was poured out upon them there at Pentecost. In order for us to be what we ought to be, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit just like they were.
2. Second sermon we talked about the theology of the Holy Spirit.
a. It was entitled: “Who is the Holy Spirit?” Its basic thrust was this: The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, who is spoken of in the Bible as sent down from heaven to earth to work with man and represent God’s presence to His people:
(1) Psalm 139:7 “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?”
(2) Psalm 51:11 “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.”
(3) Ezek.39:29 “I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord."
b. The Holy Spirit is the member of the Trinity who is the channel of God’s grace flowing into our lives. His special role is to help us to know God.
B. Story of this sermon
1. I set out to prepare a third sermon on the Holy Spirit in the OT.
2. Now mind you, I’m on boredom alert in this series because I preached it 19 years ago and got little response.
3. And so as I’m preparing, I got thinking: I bet studying the Holy Spirit in the OT sounds really boring to some people. But I am absolutely fascinated by the subject.
4. And then I thought, I should begin my sermon by talking about why this subject is fascinating.
5. And then I got thinking, Maybe I should preach a whole sermon on why we should study the HS.
II. Why study the Holy Spirit? Four reasons:
A. Because there is a lot of confusion and controversy about the Holy Spirit in the church today.
1. Most of you have probably already been confronted by this, but for the rest it’s just a matter of time.
2. The landscape of Christianity in the world has radically changed in the last 100 years.
3. Today, astonishingly, a kind of Christianity that didn’t even exist in 1900 is now the largest group within Protestant Christianity and the second largest Christian group next to the RC church.
4. By and large, the differences between Pentecostal/charismatic Christians and classic Protestant/evangelical Christians is not about the view of God or the doctrine of Jesus, but about the Holy Spirit.
a. We need answers. We need to understand what the Bible says about the HS and His role in the church & in our lives. As JI Packer says, “The charismatic movement is rubbing our faces in the doctrine of the HS.”
5. Some of these groups believe things that aren’t really that far from what the PCA believes. However, virtually everyone agrees that there are many Christians today who are buying into some really wrong and dangerous teaching about the Holy Spirit.
6. Not only this, but there is a growing number of “Christians” who are consciously fashioning what they believe not from Scripture, but according to their inner voice, which they think of as the Holy Spirit speaking.
B. Because of the malaise of the Christian church in the west, including us.
1. Malaise: “at ease in Zion” (Amos 6:1)
a. We’re sleepy, we’re soft, we’re spoiled, we’re intoxicated by worldly delights.
b. We’re lacking in zeal, in joy, we’re lacking in hope, we’re lacking in Christ’s love.
c. We’re spiritual couch-potatoes!
d. Keith Green — Asleep in the light: “The world is sleeping in the dark, but the church just can't fight, cause it's asleep in the light! How can you be so dead?! When you've been so well fed? Jesus rose from the grave, And you! You can't even get out of bed!”
2. There is a lot of dead – or almost dead – Christianity.
a. Perhaps you feel like your Christianity is sort of dead.
b. It’s obvious sometimes that we really don’t get the value and power and radical nature of the gospel.
c. We are dealing with priceless gems and we act like it’s all very ordinary.
d. We’re more enthused about many other things.
e. How are we ever going to wake up? How are we ever going to come alive again?
3. The Holy Spirit is the key!
a. He’s the key to the church being what the NT church is supposed to be.
b. He’s the key to you and me being what we’re supposed to be.
c. We can’t revive ourselves! We can’t revive each other!
C. Because the sending of the Spirit was such an important part of Jesus’ work
1. One of the great things said of Jesus was that He would baptize with the Holy Spirit, which is clearly referring to pouring out the HS at Pentecost.
2. The coming of Jesus was the best thing which ever happened to this world. In order to grasp this fact, we need to understand the significance of the things He did: His incarnation, His signs and wonders, His teaching, His loving ministry, His crucifixion, His resurrection, His ascension.
3. Well, there’s one more major thing Jesus did which we need to understand: He poured out the HS upon His church.
4. That lead us to John 16:7–15. It’s the final evening of Jesus’ life. at noon the next day He’d be nailed to the cross.
a. 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
(1) Jesus’ departure left a vacuum in the lives of His people. But, He said, I’m not going to leave you alone. I’m going to send you another Helper, the HS. (John 14:16, 18)
(2) “Show us the Father.” Jesus: “Don’t you realize that if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. I and the Father are One.” (John 14:8-11, 10:30)
(3) So it is that the Spirit & Jesus are one. The HS is the Spirit of Christ. If you have the Spirit, you have the Son.
(4) Jesus is present with us through the HS, and His presence is central to the Christian life.
(5) Life with the Holy Spirit is better than life with Jesus (in the flesh).
(6) We’re more privileged than the disciples who spent time with Jesus.
(7) Colossians 1:27 tells us that the great mystery hidden of old but now revealed is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Christ in you is the Holy Spirit!
(8) We can see this same principle in what Jesus said of John the Baptist in Matthew 11:11: “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
(a) There was no one before Jesus who was greater than John the Baptist.
(b) And yet, the least member of the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
(c) What does this mean? How are we so much greater than John the Baptist?
(d) He knew Jesus. He touched Jesus. He was related to Jesus!
(e) In what way are all of us greater than him?
(f) He never knew about the crucifixion and the resurrection. But I think primarily it’s referring to the fact that He never lived in the era of the Holy Spirit.
(g) The disciples were the ones who bridged the two eras: they lived in the days before the Spirit was given, and then we see the transformed lives they lived in the days of the Spirit.
b. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
(1) He is doing a world-wide work of transformation.
c. 12-15 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. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine & declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine & declare it to you.
(1) He takes over from Jesus. He is finishing what Jesus began.
(2) He teaches us about Jesus. Where else can we come to know Jesus except through the HS?
(3) Primarily the things God is doing in the world today He’s doing through the HS.
5. Something happened the day Jesus was born which altered reality in this earth. Something happened at the cross which modified our standing with God forever. Something happened at the tomb on that first Easter morning, which was the beginning of a whole new existence. And something happened at Pentecost, when Jesus poured out His Spirit upon His people.
a. The greatest power the world has ever known came to earth, & it turned the world upside down.
b. I’ve tasted of that power. I was an atheist with a hard, slammed-shut heart toward God. And it was miraculously opened by the power of the Holy Spirit.
c. So I know where to go when I need to be revamped, when I need repentance, when I need love which I don’t naturally have, when I lack wisdom.
d. My knowledge of the HS is the thing which keeps me from plunging into deep discouragement.
e. Without my knowledge of the Holy Spirit, I would feel hopeless about my children, I would feel hopeless about this church, I would feel hopeless about this world.
D. Because God is Trinitarian, and we must understand and appreciate all three persons of the Godhead in order to know Him truly and serve Him properly.
1. Trinitarianism: different roles
a. Father: authority — sovereign One on the throne, Sustainer, Provider, law-giver, judge, the source of love, disciplinarian,
b. Son: the demonstration of love, grace, Redemption, incarnation, compassion on sinners, Showing us God as Father, the goodness of all things in God’s creation, Promise of the resurrection
c. Spirit: changed heart / new birth (“born of the Spirit”), convicter of sin, opens our eyes to Christ, moving us to cry ‘Abba Father,’ power for living in grace, representing the presence of God in our lives, power for ministry
2. There are people who believe in God but live as if there is no God. Sometimes we call them practical atheists.
a. Well, just as you can have practical atheism, you can have practical Unitarianism: people who believe in the Trinity but live as if there’s only one person in the Godhead.
b. It can be Unitarianism of the Son, or Unitarianism of the Spirit or Unitarianism of the Father.
c. Reacting to the Unitarianism of others.
3. Well, if there’s any person of the Trinity which has been neglected in the Reformed tradition, it’s the Spirit. It’s not enough to believe in the Trinity, we must live as if all three persons are real.
4. Primary colors – If you leave out one primary color, you miss out on two-thirds of all the colors.
III. Conclusion
A. The OT story, by and large, is a story of failure. But the NT story is the story of redemption. Christ has come and the Spirit has been poured out. That changes things.
1. The OT uses lofty language to describe the powerful effect of the coming of the Spirit. Listen to Isaiah
a. 32:15-17 the desert becomes a fertile field, & the fertile field seems like a forest, quietness & confidence forever
b. Is.44:4 [God’s people] will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams.
2. But we hear even loftier language from the lips of Jesus in John 7:37–39: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 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.
a. “Whoever believes in me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
b. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Would you describe your own life in this way?
c. How would you like to be able to live like this?
d. What is it talking about? “Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive.”