WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT? (1 of 2)

Unchanging Faith ❧ Part 11

Selected Passages ❧ Pastor, Dr. John Denney

If we were to look at the maps of the early explorers of America, we’d see there were vast mysterious territories that had never been explored.  Every courageous seafarer who touched America’s shoreline knew the land they were seeing was real, but their maps reminded them they knew almost nothing of America’s spacious and wild interior. 

What was true for America’s early explorers is true for believers when we begin to discover the wonder of who God is in the pages of our Bibles.  Our Bible’s are like a vast uncharted map giving us a glimpse of the wonder and reality of God.  As we press deeper into the interior of its pages, we’re stunned to learn time and again of the unlimited greatness and inexhaustible wonder of who God is.  

The topic we’re going to look at today is no exception. The title for today’s message is: Who Is The Holy Spirit? But before we understand Who the Holy Spirit is, we need to do some groundwork.  One of the most perplexing and mysterious truths the Bible teaches us about God is that He is One God but three Persons, that is 1+1+1=1.  It is known as the doctrine of the Trinity; God is One but exists in three distinct co-equal, co-essential Persons – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  For many this is going too far. It goes off the map of human logic.  I get that.  The first time I heard the doctrine of the Trinity; it left me more than a little confused. In truth, it left me very uneasy.  But the more I read and studied God’s Word, the more convinced I became the doctrine of the Trinity is undeniable and incredibly exciting!  God may tell us things about Himself that are greater than we can comprehend, but He never does so to waste our time.  We’re going to see this as we explore God’s Word.  We’re going to look at four questions: 1) What is the Trinity? 2) Who is the Holy Spirit? 3) What does He do? 4) Why does it matter?  Today, we’re going to look at just the first two questions.   

1. What is the “Trinity”? The moment some people hear the term “Trinity” they get upset.  “The word Trinity isn’t used anywhere in the Bible,” they protest.  And they are right, it isn’t. “Trinity” is not a biblical word, it’s a theological one.  It is a term used to explain what the Bible says about the unity and threeness of God. There are other theological terms we use that are not found in the Bible as well.  You won’t find the words omniscience or omnipotence, or omnipresence either.  We recognized they’re shorthand terms used to summarize all that the Bible says about God being all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-present.  For that matter, you won’t find the word “Bible” either.  The term “Trinity” is not new.  It’s been around for almost two-thousand years.  It was coined by one of the second century Church Father’s by the name of Tertulian.  What does the term “Trinity” mean? It means God is three persons, that each person is fully God, yet there is only one God.  

1. God is three (distinct) persons. Jesus made this very clear in the Great Commission:Go

therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit(Matthew 28:19, NAS).Only persons have names.  By saying in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Jesus is placing each Person of the Trinity on equal ground – they’re all three God.  What makes Jesus words even more significant is He gave them as a part of the Great Commission!  Theologian Wayne Grudem helps put this in perspective when he says, “This can be seen if we recognize how unthinkable it would have been for Jesus to say something like, ‘baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the archangel Michael’ – this would give a created being a status entirely inappropriate even for an angel” (Grudem, p. 123).  

We see the Father and the Son mentioned as two distinct persons numerous times in the introduction of NT books like Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians and others.  John does the same time throughout the book of John.  The Bible makes it clear that Jesus is not the same Person as the Holy Spirit (Lk. 3:22; Jn. 14:16). The Bible makes it clear, as well, that the Father is not the Holy Spirit (Jn. 14:15; 15:26).  Matthew shows us all three Persons at three separate places during Jesus baptism: After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased (Matthew 3:16-17). God is three distinct Persons. 

1. Each person is fully God.  God the Father:In the beginning God created the heavens and the

 earth (Genesis 1:1). God the Son: Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). God the Holy Spirit: 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). 

1. There is only one God. Both the Old and New Testaments are chalked full of statements there 

is only one God.  You can’t read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and not hear the “thunderous chorus” God is one! Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! (Deuteronomy 6:4). I am the Lord, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God (Isaiah 45:5). 

The complex unity of God being three-in-one is not new. Two-hundred years before Jesus was born ancient Jewish rabbis saw this in the first two verses of Genesis. While they were translating from Hebrew to Aramaic, the common language of the people, they realized that the Hebrew word for “beginning” (ray·sheeth) was used four other times in the OT having the same meaning as the Hebrew word for “firstborn” (bek·ore).  Listen to their translation of the opening words of Genesis: In the beginning, by the firstborn, God created the havens and the earth.  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 1:1-2, in the Targum Neofiti).  Two-hundred years before Jesus was born ancient rabbis recognized all three divine persons – the Firstborn, God the Father, and the Spirit at work in creation (Driscoll & Breshears, p. 19).  Isn’t that amazing!  

But they weren’t alone.  Another well-known rabbi from the second century, Simeon ben Joachi (Shimon ben Yochai) said referring to God’s name Elohim from Genesis 1:1 (a plural name for God emphasizing His power): “Come and see the mystery of the word Elohim: there are three degrees, and each degree is by itself alone, and yet they are all one, and joined together in one, and are not divided from each other.”(Blayney, B., Scott, T., & Torrey, R. A. with Canne, J., Browne. (n.d.). The Treasury of Scripture knowledge (Vol. 1, p. 128). 

What is the Trinity? Three distinct Persons, each Person is fully God, yet there is only One God.  This was not new to the early church, but it hadn’t been thought out as clearly until Tertulian and others came along. Now, we can ask the question: Who is the Holy Spirit?

1. Who is the Holy Spirit? Over the course of the last two-thousand years hundreds of thousands of books have been written on the different subjects of the Bible.  But one that is the least talked about and the least understood is the Holy Spirit.  Part of the reason, I think, is because of the Holy Spirit’s unique role in the Trinity.  The Bible tells us His role to glorify the Son (John 16:14). Like the person in charge of the stage lights.  His job is to make the actor shine on stage.  You never see the person in charge of the lights. The Holy Spirit’s job is to make Jesus shine.   What The Holy Spirit is NOT 

1. He is not an “It”. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with

you forever (John 14:16).  Jesus makes it clear the Holy Spirit is a Person. He’s not an “it”.  He is the third Person in Godhead making Him extremely important! How important? Jesus tells us. The word for “another” means one exactly like Jesus.  He will be their Helper or Comforter just like Jesus was. Just as Jesus as a Person has intellect, emotion, and will, so does the Holy Spirit.  It’s as though Jesus were saying, “The Holy Spirit is not going to be force, or an energy, but a Person in every respect.” But He would not be near them, but in them.  The very of Jesus promise that God the Holy Spirit would dwell within them was beyond their imaginations.   

The story is told about the great Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, the first to discover the magnetic meridian of the North Pole and to discover the South Pole. On one of his trips, Amundsen took a homing pigeon with him. When he had finally reached the top of the world, he opened the bird’s cage and set it free. Imagine the delight of Amundsen’s wife, back in Norway, when she looked up from the doorway of her home and saw the pigeon circling in the sky above. No doubt she exclaimed, “He’s alive! My husband is still alive!”

Imagine what Jesus disciples must have felt after He ascended into Heaven. Jesus was gone, but the disciples clung to His promise to send them the Holy Spirit.  Their joy must have been overwhelming when the Holy Spirit descended from Heaven and indwelt them at Pentecost. The disciples had with them the continual reminder that God was within them and that Jesus was alive and victorious at the right of the Father.  The same message is true today!  The Holy Spirit is not an “it” but One exactly like Jesus who dwells within us!

1. He is not imaginary. His Person and His power are real. Shortly before Jesus ascended to

Heaven, His disciples had a number of what they thought were very important questions.  After answering them, Jesus left with some information that was far more important than their questions. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth (Acts 1:8).Jesus is saying not only would they have His presence with them through the Holy Spirit, but His power as well.  The same power that healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, and raised the dead would reside within them to be His witness to the world! This is the same power that radically transformed the apostles from hiding in fear for their lives to boldly storming the world with the message of Christ.  The same Person and supernatural power of the Holy Spirit Jesus promised would indwell the disciples to be His witnesses indwells believers today.  

I read this week about a little boy who was flying a kite. It was a windy day, and the kite kept going higher and higher. Finally it got so high that it was out of sight. A man passed by and saw the little boy holding onto the string. The man could not see the kite, and he asked the boy, “How do you even know you have a kite up there?” The boy replied, “Because I can feel it.”  The Holy Spirit is not imaginary.  We may not be able to see the Holy Spirit, but we should be able to sense His transforming work in our lives to be His witnesses in the world. 

1. He is not passive. If you were to take a left out of the parking lot and travel down the highway

for about four miles, you’d come to the Albeni Falls Dam. Its powerful turbines and generators convert gravity-driven water from the river into hydroelectricity providing enough electric power to supply about 15,000 homes.  Judging from the looks of it, you’d never guess that much power was being produced. On the outside it seems quiet, almost static.  But if we could see deep within where the turbines and generators are powerfully at work transforming tons and tons water into electricity, we’d have a whole different appreciation. 

We may look at the world today and sometimes wonder if the Holy Spirit is at work.  But Jesus assures

us He is.  He tells us in John 16 the Holy Spirit is at work both in the world and in believers: Concerning the world: When He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment… Concerning believers: He will guide you into all the truth(John 16:8,14).  I’m convinced God the Holy Spirit is more at work convicting and guiding than we have any idea. Paul reminds us in 2 Thessalonians 2:7 that this is fact taking place even today.  The Holy Spirit’s invisible invincible power is at work holding the leash on evil. If you think things are bad, you haven’t seen anything.  One day the Holy Spirit will let go of the leash and all hell will break loose.  After having traveling to the world’s second largest city of 37 million people in New Delhi India and surviving Delhi’s harrowing traffic, I’m convinced the Holy Spirit is holding back evil!  

What The Holy Spirit IS

1. He is a Person.  There are many today who don’t agree with the Bible saying the Holy Spirit is

not a distinct Person, He is not coequal with the Father and the Son, but He is instead an impersonal force. 

Jesus clearly taught the Holy Spirit is real.  But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come (John 16:13).  This verse shows the Holy Spirit is a separate Person from both God the Father and Jesus.  His purpose is not to speak on His own but what He has heard telling them about what is to come. John’s use of the pronoun He or Him seven times in this verse emphasizes the distinct personhood of the Holy Spirit.  

1. He is God. Paul makes this clear in his closing words in 2 Corinthians: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). 

Years ago, while I was at a Pastor’s Prayer time I met a man who’d been a prominent leader of a well-known cult that denied the existence of the Holy Spirit.  After the founder of the cult had died, his leaders came together to discuss whether the Bible taught that the Holy Spirit was real or not.  They decided to individually study their Bible’s and then come together to discuss what they found.  Their conclusion was unanimous – the Holy Spirit is real.  The man’s study led him to radically transform his beliefs and come to Christ.