Doctrine is defined as a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a Church, political party, or other group.
The doctrines of our faith serve the same function for our spiritual lives that the skeletal systems do for our physical lives. So the doctrines of our faith support and protect our beliefs.
The fourth doctrine in this series is that there is a third person in the Godhead that is equal with God The, Father, and God the Son, and that person is the Holy Spirit. We will look at The Holy Spirit and His role in the Trinity as is relates to mankind's redemption and reconciliation with God Almighty.
John 14:16-26 CEV Then I will ask the Father to send you the Holy Spirit who will help you and always be with you. The Spirit will show you what is true. The people of this world cannot accept the Spirit, because they don't see or know him. But you know the Spirit, who is with you and will keep on living in you. I won't leave you like orphans. I will come back to you. In a little while the people of this world won't be able to see me, but you will see me. And because I live, you will live. Then you will know I am one with the Father. You will know you are one with me, and I am one with you. If you love me, you will do what I have said, and my Father will love you. I will also love you and show you what I am like. The other Judas, not Judas Iscariot, then spoke up and asked, “Lord, what do you mean by saying that you will show us what you are like, but you will not show the people of this world?” Jesus replied: If anyone loves me, they will obey me. Then my Father will love them, and we will come to them and live in them. But anyone who doesn't love me, won't obey me. What they have heard me say doesn't really come from me, but from the Father who sent me. I have told you these things while I am still with you. But the Holy Spirit will come and help you, because the Father will send the Spirit to take my place. The Spirit will teach you everything and will remind you of what I said while I was with you.
This is the fourth in our series “The Doctrines Of Our Faith”.
Doctrine is defined as a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a Church, political party, or other group.
The doctrines of our faith support and protect our beliefs.
Our first doctrine is that the Bible is divine revelation, or the Living Word. The second is the doctrine that the One we believe in and worship does exist and He is Almighty God.
Last week our discussion was on the doctrine that God Almighty that we worship and who we know exists took on human form and came to earth and actually lived among his creation as one of them. Almighty God is also the Incomparable Christ.
Today we want to look at the doctrine that teaches that there is a third person in the Godhead that is equal with God The, Father, and God the Son, and that person is the Holy Spirit. We want to look at who the Holy Spirit is His role in the Trinity as is relates to mankind's redemption and reconciliation with God.
Text:
John 14:26 CEV But the Holy Spirit will come and help you, because the Father will send the Spirit to take my place. The Spirit will teach you everything and will remind you of what I said while I was with you.
Introduction
Have you ever heard of the title Vicar. It's a title you most often hear in the Catholic Church. A vicar is someone who serves as the agent of another, like the Pope or a Bishop. Our word vicarious, which means acting or doing something for another person is an extension of the word vicar.(I'm living vicariously through my son)
The death of Christ on the cross was a “vicarious sacrifice”—that is, Christ, though he never sinned, entered into humanity’s sinful situation to become the divine substitute, He is God's agent in providing the once-for-all payment for our sins. Just as Jesus was God’s agent in redemption, the Holy Spirit is God’s representative-in-residence on the earth, as such the Holy Spirit is the “Vicar or Agent of Christ.”
The Holy Spirit did not come to bear witness of himself, but to draw people to Christ.
I. The Holy Spirit’s identity.
Who is the Holy Spirit?
Most Christians believe that the is a person equal in every way with God the Father and God the Son. He is considered to be the third member of the Godhead or the Trinity.
First of all let me say that We as Christians believe in only one God.
Isaiah 45:5-6 CEV Only I am the Lord ! There are no other gods. I have made you strong, though you don't know me. Now everyone from east to west will learn that I am the Lord . No other gods are real.
The Bible is also clear in that it says that the Father is God, the Son (Jesus) is God (we talked about that last week), and the Holy Spirit is God,
Acts 5:3-4 CEV Peter said, “Why has Satan made you keep back some of the money from the sale of the property? Why have you lied to the Holy Spirit? The property was yours before you sold it, and even after you sold it, the money was still yours. What made you do such a thing? You didn't lie to people. You lied to God!”
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are totally distinct; the Father doesn’t become the Son, the Son doesn’t become the Holy Spirit.
Here's one description of the Trinity by Dr. James White, author of "The Forgotten Trinity". "There is within the One being, that is God, three co-equal and co-eternal persons namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."
A good friend says it this way “God has Three ways of revealing Himself to humanity, through redemption.”
1 God the Father designed and organized how mankind would be redeemed.
Galatians 4:4-5 CEV But when the time was right, God sent his Son, and a woman gave birth to him. His Son obeyed the Law, so he could set us free from the Law, and we could become God's children.
He set into motion a complex set of events, actions, and prophecies which culminated in the life and death of a Savior.
2. The Son carried out the plan
John 6:37-40 CEVEverything and everyone that the Father has given me will come to me, and I won't turn any of them away. I didn't come from heaven to do what I want! I came to do what the Father wants me to do. He sent me, and he wants to make certain that none of the ones he has given me will be lost. Instead, he wants me to raise them to life on the last day. My Father wants everyone who sees the Son to have faith in him and to have eternal life. Then I will raise them to life on the last day.
The Son followed the Father's instructions to come to earth, even though that meant He would have to die.
3. The Holy Spirit sees to it that every person feels a call toward God's saving grace.
John 16:5-11 CEV But now I am going back to the Father who sent me, and none of you asks me where I am going. You are very sad from hearing all of this. But I tell you I am going to do what is best for you. This is why I am going away. The Holy Spirit cannot come to help you until I leave. But after I am gone, I will send the Spirit to you. The Spirit will come and show the people of this world the truth about sin and God's justice and the judgment. The Spirit will show them that they are wrong about sin, because they didn't have faith in me. They are wrong about God's justice, because I am going to the Father, and you won't see me again. And they are wrong about the judgment, because God has already judged the ruler of this world.
The Holy Spirit also transforms the lives and hearts of those who receive salvation through Jesus Christ.
Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
I know that is hard to wrap your mind around but “The God we serve is so immense and so unsearchable that we simply bow our knees before the God who has chosen to reveal Himself to us in scripture. If you can fully comprehend God then your god is far too small. The God that we serve is a God that is beyond us, He is unknowable, too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words, but He has also made Himself known through the person and work of Jesus Christ.”
Even though Jesus has ascended back to the Father and is no longer visible among us, there is a divine person on earth dwelling in and with the children of God.
He is the third person of the triune Godhead. A body was not prepared for him, as was true with Jesus. Rather, the Holy Spirit dwells in the bodies of Christians.
John 14:17 CEV The Spirit will show you what is true. The people of this world cannot accept the Spirit, because they don't see or know him. But you know the Spirit, who is with you and will keep on living in you.
According to Paul, our bodies are the temples in which and through which the Holy Spirit manifests himself.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 CEV Don't be immoral in matters of sex. That is a sin against your own body in a way no other sin is. You surely know that your body is a temple where the Holy Spirit lives. The Spirit is in you and is a gift from God. You are no longer your own. God paid a great price for you. So use your body to honor God.
The Holy Spirit is a Person
We must understand that the Holy Spirit is a person just as Christ is a person. We cannot see him, but his personality and presence are equally as real as Christ’s.
The Holy Spirit is a Person. He is not a mystic “power” or “thing.” or an “it” as if the Spirit is a thing or force that we can control or use. A person is a living, intelligent being, with a mind, feelings, and emotions. The Holy Spirit has attributes that only a person could have. He has intelligence, feelings, a will, He prays, He can be insulted, He teaches and He directs.
John 16:13-14 CEV The Spirit shows what is true and will come and guide you into the full truth. The Spirit doesn't speak on his own. He will tell you only what he has heard from me, and he will let you know what is going to happen. The Spirit will bring glory to me by taking my message and telling it to you.
In this passage, Jesus revealed seven things about the Holy Spirit that prove him to be a real person: the Holy Spirit comes, guides, hears, speaks, glorifies, receives, and shows.
And Paul said in Ephesians 4:30 that the Holy Spirit can be grieved.
Ephesians 4:29-32 NKJVLet no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Can a mystic power be grieved? No, but a person can.
Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit as “he” in John 16:12-14..”
He has intelligence
1 Corinthians 2:10-12 CEV
God's Spirit has shown you everything. His Spirit finds out everything, even what is deep in the mind of God. You are the only one who knows what is in your own mind, and God's Spirit is the only one who knows what is in God's mind. But God has given us his Spirit. This is why we don't think the same way that the people of this world think. This is also why we can recognize the blessings God has given us.
Paul is talking about spiritual wisdom taught by the Holy Spirit, who is the perfect Teacher.
He has feelings
Ephesians 4:30-32 CEV Don't make God's Spirit sad. The Spirit makes you sure that someday you will be free from your sins. Stop being bitter and angry and mad at others. Don't yell at one another or curse each other or ever be rude. Instead, be kind and merciful, and forgive others, just as God forgave you because of Christ.
We can hurt the Holy Spirit’s feelings, or grieve Him. How? Through dependency on self, pride, selfishness, distrust, worry, fear, anger, resentment, unforgiveness, hatred and similar self-centered, negative actions.
Although the Holy Spirit can be grieved he will never leave you because He is our seal, our guarantee.
Ephesians 1:13-14 CEV Christ also brought you the truth, which is the good news about how you can be saved. You put your faith in Christ and were given the promised Holy Spirit to show you belong to God. The Spirit also makes us sure we will be given what God has stored up for his people. Then we will be set free, and God will be honored and praised.
He has a will
1 Corinthians 12:11 CEV But it is the Spirit who does all this and decides which gifts to give to each of us.
Here Paul is talking about the spiritual gifts given to all who believe.
The Spirit gives gifts whoever he decides to give them to so He has a will. He alone decides they are not the result of anybody deserving any gift.
He directs the activities of believers, according to His will, as He directs Paul.
Acts 16:6-10 CEV Paul and his friends went through Phrygia and Galatia, but the Holy Spirit would not let them preach in Asia. After they arrived in Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not let them. So they went on through Mysia until they came to Troas. During the night, Paul had a vision of someone from Macedonia who was standing there and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” After Paul had seen the vision, we began looking for a way to go to Macedonia. We were sure that God had called us to preach the good news there.
He prays
Romans 8:26 CEV In certain ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us. For example, when we don't know what to pray for, the Spirit prays for us in ways that cannot be put into words.
Sometimes we cannot pray because words cannot express the needs we feel. The Spirit's response of sighs too deep for words shows how God through his Spirit enters into our experiences.- The Wycliffe Bible Commentary.
He can be insulted
Hebrews 10:26-29 CEV No sacrifices can be made for people who decide to sin after they find out about the truth. They are God's enemies, and all they can look forward to is a terrible judgment and a furious fire. If two or more witnesses accused someone of breaking the Law of Moses, that person could be put to death. But it is much worse to dishonor God's Son and to disgrace the blood of the promise that made us holy. And it is just as bad to insult the Holy Spirit, who shows us mercy.
Deliberate sin is a rejection of the sacrifice of Jesus and to be honest a believer can’t be guilty of this because remember if your salvation was authentic then it is permanent. Deliberate sin The threefold charge follows: (1) contempt for Christ in the thought of trampling under foot; (2) rejecting the blood-bought covenant as worthless and unholy; (3) despising the person and work of the Holy Spirit. - The Wycliffe Bible Commentary.
He teaches
John 14:26 CEV But the Holy Spirit will come and help you, because the Father will send the Spirit to take my place. The Spirit will teach you everything and will remind you of what I said while I was with you.
The teaching that Jesus did before He was crucified presented a new way of living in accordance with the way God wanted man to relate to Him and to each other but it wasn’t complete. It was going to be completed by the coming of the Holy Spirit. His ministry to believers would be to teach.
II. Now that we know who the Holy Spirit is let's look at Jesus' introduction of Him to His disciples.
Jesus said;
John 15:26 CEV I will send you the Spirit who comes from the Father and shows what is true. The Spirit will help you and will tell you about me.
And
John 15:26 CEVI will send you the Spirit who comes from the Father and shows what is true. The Spirit will help you and will tell you about me.
These words were obviously used of someone one who already existed and was expected to come but who had not yet arrived yet. That may be a little confusing because the Holy Spirit was referred to in the Old Testament, long before the day of Pentecost.
Acts 2:1-4 CEV On the day of Pentecost all the Lord's followers were together in one place. Suddenly there was a noise from heaven like the sound of a mighty wind! It filled the house where they were meeting. Then they saw what looked like fiery tongues moving in all directions, and a tongue came and settled on each person there. The Holy Spirit took control of everyone, and they began speaking whatever languages the Spirit let them speak.
Prior to Pentecost, the Holy Spirit had been on earth only as a visitor. He had “come upon” certain people and empowered them to perform miracles or to declare God’s Word.
1 Samuel 10:9-10 CEV As Saul turned around to leave Samuel, God made Saul feel like a different person. That same day, everything happened just as Samuel had said. When Saul arrived at Gibeah, a group of prophets met him. The Spirit of God suddenly took control of him, and right there in the middle of the group he began prophesying.
Samson's strength was related to having the Spirit of God. When Samson had the Spirit, he was strong
Judges 14:19 CEV Then the Lord 's Spirit took control of Samson. He went to Ashkelon, where he killed 30 men and took their clothing. Samson then gave it to the 30 young men at Timnah and stormed back home to his own family.
When Samson turned to immorality, the Spirit left him.
Judges 16:19-20 CEV Delilah had lulled Samson to sleep with his head resting in her lap. She signaled to one of the Philistine men as she began cutting off Samson's seven braids. And by the time she was finished, Samson's strength was gone. Delilah tied him up and shouted, “Samson, the Philistines are attacking!” Samson woke up and thought, “I'll break loose and escape, just as I always do.” He did not realize that the Lord had stopped helping him.
God gave His Spirit for specific tasks
Exodus 31:1-6 CEV The Lord said to Moses: I have chosen Bezalel from the Judah tribe to make the sacred tent and its furnishings. Not only have I filled him with my Spirit, but I have given him wisdom and made him a skilled craftsman who can create objects of art with gold, silver, bronze, precious stones, and wood. I have appointed Oholiab from the tribe of Dan to work with him, and I have also given skills to those who will help them make everything exactly as I have commanded you:
But now, according to Jesus, he was coming as a resident to abide forever within those to whom he was given.
John 14:17 CEV The Spirit will show you what is true. The people of this world cannot accept the Spirit, because they don't see or know him. But you know the Spirit, who is with you and will keep on living in you.
Paul wrote to the believers at Corinth.
I Corinthians 6:19 NKJV Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
What is the difference between the Holy Spirit coming upon a person and dwelling within a person?
To illustrate, think of the contrast between an old-fashioned sailing vessel and a modern steamship. The sailing vessel is dependent for its movement on an outside power coming upon it. When the wind fills its sails, movement takes place. On the other hand, a steamship is propelled by a power within, a power that is constant, not intermittent like the wind. In the days before Christ came, God’s people were like the sailing vessel. Today Christians are like the steamship. Our progress, if we have the Holy Spirit living within us, is depending on the power within, not without.
III. The Holy Spirit’s intention.
The Holy Spirit plays a very significant role in the imparting of eternal life to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that all three persons of the Trinity are related to the plan of redemption.
The first person becomes the Father of a Christian.
Ephesians 4:6 CEV There is one God who is the Father of all people. Not only is God above all others, but he works by using all of us, and he lives in all of us.
The life of the second person, Jesus, belongs to the Christian.
John 14:6 CEV “I am the way, the truth, and the life!” Jesus answered. “Without me, no one can go to the Father.
John 10:10 CEV A thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy. I came so everyone would have life, and have it fully.
The third person, the Holy Spirit, brings about the regeneration, the change that comes when a person is born again. In his letter to Titus, Paul explained salvation;
Titus 3:5 CEV He saved us because of his mercy, and not because of any good things we have done. God washed us by the power of the Holy Spirit. He gave us new birth and a fresh beginning.
It is the Holy Spirit who reveals God to mankind. The Holy Spirit is involved in three phases of revelation. He makes known the will of God (which he did in the form of oral prophecy through the prophets of old); he inspired the written Word (the infallible revelation of God to humanity); and he illuminates the Word (makes it meaningful and intelligible to Christians as they read and study it).
The Holy Spirit enables Christians. He is the One who empowers Christians for spiritual service and for day-by-day consistency in their Christians lives. Because of sin, people in themselves cannot please God or serve him acceptably. But the presence and power of the Holy Spirit within Christians makes it possible for them to please God. Sometimes this is referred to as being filled by the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 5:18 CEV Don't destroy yourself by getting drunk, but let the Spirit fill your life.
The Holy Spirit sanctifies Christians. Sanctification runs in two directions: first, it is instantaneous. The moment a person is born into the family of God, he or she is “set apart” to live and exist for a different purpose. Sanctification is also progressive. When people are born again, they begin to grow and daily become more and more like their Lord. Just as children grow and take on more and more of their parents’ physical and dispositional characteristics, so Christians should come to resemble their Lord more each day.
Conclusion
We have seen the blessed significance and importance of the Holy Spirit in God’s plan and purpose for humanity. The Holy Spirit operates in the lives of believers so that day by day they may be conformed to the image of God’s Son. This is not completed at the moment of salvation; it is the beginning of a long work of grace.
Romans 8:28-29 CEV We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him. They are the ones God has chosen for his purpose, and he has always known who his chosen ones would be. He had decided to let them become like his own Son, so his Son would be the first of many children.
Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to do his assigned work in your life?