[This is based on the manuscript of the talk I did that you can listen to here, and has been only slightly adapted – so please forgive any grammar or spelling mistakes! In one sense this task is impossible, we can only scratch the surface when digging into any member of the Trinity. And yet for those more mature, you might not learn anything new, though it’s always good to remember and turn the truths we remember into praise. For some there might be things you don’t understand. That’s okay. Digging deeper isn’t always easy and there’s no shame in not understanding some technical phrase. The Christian life is a journey and none of us have arrived and know everything. One last thing to note for those who have watched or listened to the talk – I have added a brief bit about the gifts of the Spirit that due to the length of the talk, decided to leave out. ]
Introduction
In 2009 Francis Chan published a book called – The Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit. You can tell by the title of the book what his argument was – the church has largely forgotten and neglected the work of the Spirit.
Is that the case in our church?
If it is, this isn’t a new problem. Thomas Goodwin writing in the seventeenth century wrote near the beginning of his book on the Holy Spirit:
‘There is a general omission in the saints of God, in their not giving the Holy Ghost that glory that is due to his person, and for his great work of salvation in us, insomuch that we have in our hearts almost lost this third person’
I’m not sure that I’d argue the case as strongly as Chan, but whether we’ve neglected or forgotten the Holy Spirit – surely it will do us good to think upon Him more!
There’s various ways we can do this, but to help us we’re going to see four main things:
1: The Person of the Holy Spirit
2: The Promise of the Holy Spirit
3: The Presence of the Holy Spirit
4: The Power of the Holy Spirit
1: The Person of the Holy Spirit
Yes person not some force, or nebulous thing or an ‘it’.
First and foremost, we need to say this about the Holy Spirit – he is the third person of the triune God. The third person of the Godhead.
Together with Father and Son – the Spirit is God. Trinity. Co-equal. Co-eternal and yet distinct in person. Part of the three-in-one God.
Once we grasp this we can think of the Spirit as a person of the Trinity. And although we want to be careful and not put everything we think as humans into what we know as the person of the Holy Spirit – here’s a quote from Mike Reeve’s helpfully showing us some of what he does:
“As a person he speaks and sends (Acts 13:2, 4); he chooses (Acts 20:28), teaches (John 14:26), gives (Isaiah 63:14); he can be lied to and tested (Acts 5:3, 9); he can be resisted (Acts 7:51), grieved (Isaiah 63:10; Ephesians 4:30) and blasphemed (Matthew 12:31). In every way he is presented alongside the Father and the Son as a real person”
There is another error to avoid – as much as we can see that the Spirit is distinct from the Father and Son – we can have a tendency when we focus on one person of the Trinity to forget the others. And we have to remember that the Spirit always works as part of the Triune God. He’s distinct but never separated, never doing some lone ranger mission.
He’s always doing the work of the Father and the Son or as theologians say (in the West anyway) he is always proceeding from the Father and the Son.
In fact, here’s a good formula to have in mind when thinking of any person of the Trinity –
“From the Father, in the Son, through the Spirit.” (Or from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit…)
The Father is always the sender, always the initiator. The Father accomplishes in the Son. What the Son accomplishes is applied through the Spirit.
It’s what theologians call the doctrine of inseparable operations.
They are always working together.
Let me give just one example – who saves us?
The Father? The Son? The Spirit? Well we don’t say just one, even if we tend to use the description of Saviour to the Son – but we know don’t we, that it is the triune God who saves!
The Father chose us and adopted us – the Son died for us – and we know the Spirit gives us life – what we call “regeneration” – he gives us life and the eyes to see that we need forgiveness and can be saved because of what the Father has accomplished in the Son.
But even adoption is the act of the triune God – Ephesians 1:4-5 ‘For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ’ – the Father chose and we become adopted through the work and person of Christ.
But don’t think for one second the Spirit is not involved.
Romans 8:14-16 shows us:
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
The Spirit brought about your adoption to sonship – because he applies the saving work of the Father through the Son. And it is by him we cry out Abba Father.
Why not spend a minute silently praising the triune God for this glorious truth.
2: The Promise of the Holy Spirit
We read from near the beginning of Ephesians 1:3-14 earlier – well at end we come to the Holy Spirit.
We read in v13-14: “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.”
The promised Holy Spirit
God promised the Spirit would come. Not to regenerate God’s people as that has always been the work of the Spirit. So what?
Well there’s debate on exactly what the promise entailed but I believe that it is this: a full and permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
It was the new covenant promise that Jeremiah alluded to in Jeremiah 31:33-34:
‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, “Know the Lord,” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,’ declares the Lord.’
And what Jeremiah alludes to Ezekiel makes even clearer in Ezekiel 36:27 – not just regeneration and total lasting forgiveness but: ‘And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws’
A Spirit that Joel 2:28-29 says:
“I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days”
God will pour out his Spirit on all different types of people.
No longer some prophets and the odd king – all his people will be indwelt with the Spirit, from the least to the last – and will supernaturally see and do wonderous things.
And we see this fulfilled at Pentecost in Acts 2:14-21 with Peter quoting Joel 2.
I: The Gifts of the Spirit
This is not the time to go into the gifts of the Spirit in detail (maybe that’s another dig deeper!) but it’s worth noting that the promise of the Spirit means all will receive a gift from the Spirit – from the seemingly mundane like admin, to the more obvious like teaching. And the way the lists never seem to perfectly map onto each other suggests the lists are not exhaustive (see 1 Corinthians 12-14; Romans 12:3-8; Ephesians 4:7-16; 1 Peter 4:10-11).
Leaving aside the debate on whether some gifts have ceased or not, the point of the promise is that all will be gifted, from the least to the last, because all have received the promised Holy Spirit. And therefore, every Christian has a place in the church in order to serve one another, build one another up, or affirm the truths of the gospel. No gift is unimportant to the church.
As tempting as it is to go down that rabbit hole, here’s what I want to focus on.
II: The Promised Paraclete
Jesus in John makes it clear in chapters 14-16 that he will be leaving but after he leaves he will send the Spirit. Here’s the times he talks about this specific future event:
John 14:16: ‘And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever’
John 14:26: ‘But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.’
John 15:26: ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father – the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father – he will testify about me.’
John 16:7: ‘But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.’
That word “Advocate” is notoriously difficult to translate – and if you have another translation you’ll probably read it differently – and that is because the word means so many things. It’s led some to say we should use the Greek word Paraclete and then describe all the different connotations of what it means.
What does it mean to have the Paraclete in us? Other than the fact these verses says he’ll be with us forever, teach us and testify about Jesus – in fact one of the Spirit’s main roles is to point the spotlight away from himself and towards the Son – to glorify the Son, just as the Son glorifies the Father.
So what is the promised role of the Paraclete? – well yes, Advocate – he will fight our cause; but also Helper – he will help us in all kinds of trials and ways; He is also Comforter – he will comfort us through hardship and life. But he is also Counsellor – he will guide us and give us wisdom when we need it.
This is the promised Holy Spirit – the Paraclete – the Advocate, Helper, Comforter, Counsellor. This is who we have indwelling us – you couldn’t ask for a better advocate, helper, comforter, counsellor – so here’s a wonderful fact: no matter how lonely and desperate you are, you will never be alone.
The promised Holy Spirit is with you.
I want us to pause here and think of one thing you can thank God for about the promised Holy Spirit.
3: The Presence of the Holy Spirit
I just want to spend a few minutes just dwelling on this to drill deep down into our hearts. The fact that we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit should make us pause, reflect and then praise God.
As Paul says in 1 Cor 3:16 (I believe speaking of the local church)
‘Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives among you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.’
Don’t you know that we are the temple of God? That once God’s special presence dwelt in the bricks of a building – but now we are the bricks – we are the temple of God? That God is present in his church!
But it gets even better because here’s what Paul says a few chapters later in
1 Cor 6:19-20: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour [or glorify] God with your bodies.”
Take this in. As weak and as insignificant as you might feel, each Christian has the presence of God dwelling inside of them. Each Christian are temples of the Holy Sprit who is in you. You are not your own. The Spirit of God dwells in you.
This, along with the fact that you were bought at a price – the cost of Christ – should cause us to glorify God with our bodies – our actions should reflect and honour God.
Don’t you know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? Praise the LORD for such a gift, for the presence of God with us – for God with us – always – until the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20). Praise the LORD for the person, promise, presence and finally…
4: The Power of the Holy Spirit
The question needs to be asked and answered more fully than it has done so far – what difference does it make? What difference does it make to my life as a Christian with the Spirit indwelling me?
This is what I want to spend the rest of our time looking at – practically seeing the difference the Spirit does make and can make in our lives. How can we be influenced by the Spirit and rely on him more?
Well I don’t know if you remember – I’ve mentioned now and again that the purpose of discipleship is to know God better, grow in Christ and go and make more disciples.
But without the Spirit’s help all these three things are impossible.
We see the Spirit at work in:
1: Knowing God Better
This is Paul’s prayer for the people of Ephesus and should be our prayer for ourselves and one another:
Ephesians 1:17: ‘I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.’
Paul is asking that the Father may give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation – the Spirit who is wise and reveals – so that we may know him better.
The prayer of knowing God better is centred on the Spirit helping us to know God better. Do we pray this for ourselves and one another? Do we ask that the Spirit would make us wise and reveal more of God?
But of course, this shouldn’t surprise us. In 1 Corinthians 2:10-12 reminds us that the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God and it is the Spirit who helps understand God.
It is the Spirit that reveals and helps us know God better. You cannot live the Christian life without the Spirit helping you…
In fact, it is the Spirit in Romans 5:5 who poured God’s love into our hearts. Without the Spirit we cannot know God.
And he does this in at least three ways:
I: Through God’s Word
The Spirit is not only the one that works in and through the human authors through what we call the inspiration of Scripture – all Scripture is breathed out by God – but he’s also the one who helps us understand Scripture – what we call the doctrine of illumination.
He reveals to us as the Spirit of truth – all truth. He helps us understand. Without him we cannot really comprehend or understand God’s Word.
In fact, Paul so closely associates God’s Word with the Spirit that he says the Sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.
To know God better we need to rely on the Spirit to open up our eyes to Scripture.
Do we come to reading our Bible’s asking for the Spirit’s help and power to open up our eyes?
Which leads us to our second thing – the Spirit helps us to know God better –
II: Through Prayer
Romans 8:26-27: ‘In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.’
This is quite amazing. When we’re weak and we struggle to pray, the Spirit himself intercedes and prays for us. He helps us pray what we should pray.
This shouldn’t let us off the hook about prayer – ah I don’t need to because the Spirit will send prayers direct. No it’s when we’re struggling in prayer and our words are wordless – just groans that the Spirit can interpret what we need and what God’s will is to help us.
That is special. The power of God at work in us in prayer.
What is more. Paul says in Ephesians 6:18 ‘And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.’
Which I take to mean – always pray with dependence on the Spirit, relying on him to help you pray, and being receptive to him to help you know what to pray – and to pray with a faith that can move mountains! Pray in the Spirit on all occasions.
Don’t pray without a conscious dependence on the Spirit’s help – he is after all our Helper and Advocate.
The power of God is at work in us through prayer.
But here’s another way the Spirit can help us to know God better. It’s another passage from Ephesians and the chapter before in:
Ephesians 5:18-20: “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
With the Spirit’s help we can know God better through
III: Praise & Thanksgiving
Paul says ‘be filled with the Spirit’.
Stuart Olyott says of this passage:
“He is not giving them some helpful advice. His words are not a recommendation. His instruction is an order. It is a command”
Did you realise that? How different our Sunday services might be if we wholeheartedly obeyed this command. Be filled with the Spirit –
But if we’re always indwelt by the Spirit – so how can we be filled with Spirit? What does it mean?
Well it’s a command that instructs us to have a more intense experience of the Spirit – to be so radically filled with the Spirit – that on this occasion it leads to praise and thanksgiving.
But before you’re starting to get worried – it’s a passive command “be filled” is not something we can actively do ourselves – it comes from God.
It’s like the wind on a sailboat – you do all you can to make sure the sail catches the wind – but at the end of the day – the boat won’t go anywhere unless the wind fills the sails.
And it’s the same with us. Which might leave us thinking – well then how can it happen? But have we ever prayed for it to happen? Next week? Next Sunday?
And have we been so receptive to the Spirit that we allow him to fill us with the power of God in a way that produces praise and thanksgiving to God?
Maybe that’s something we can think on and pray for more.
And as we do we will surely know God better as we study His Word, pray and praise Him.
But as we’re doing that with the Spirit’s help. He is also at work in
2: Growing us in Christ
Here’s one thing we need to go away remembering: The Spirit is the power of God at work in us to become more like Jesus.
There’s two chapters that help teach this so well. One is Romans 8 and the other is Galatians 5. For the sake of time let’s just look at the latter and read Galatians 5:16-25:
“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
Here’s some pictures that help us see the Spirit’s power in making us more like Jesus.
First: we need to live by the Spirit, v16 and be led by the Spirit v18 – be so influenced by the Spirit that you don’t give into the sinful desire of the flesh. That in the daily, hourly conflict we find ourselves fighting – we are led by the Spirit and live by the Spirit – influenced by the Spirit, not led by and live by the flesh.
And we have evidence of whether we are living by the Spirit because the acts of the flesh are obvious – but also positively we see the fruit of the Spirit – when we live and are led by the Spirit – when we are relying on the power of the Spirit – choosing the Spirit over the flesh, denying ourselves, killing sin, looking to Jesus – then we will produce ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’
This is the fruit that the power of the Spirit produces in us when we look to the Spirit for help – this is the fruit I see in the church. The fruit that grows as we rely on the Spirit.
And as we do Paul reminds us in v25 ‘Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit’
Since this is what we do let’s keep in step – like a march – let’s keep the rhythm and beat of the Spirit’s rhythm and beat – not misstep or fall out of line or give in – let’s keep in step with the Spirit. And as we do the fruit of the Spirit will grow and grow and grow.
The power of the Spirit is at work in changing us to become more like Christ. I know so much more could be said about this…but let’s see finally the power of the Spirit helping us to
3: Going to make more disciples
How much do we rely on the Spirit’s help in teaching and telling others about Jesus?
Acts 1:8 is a wonderful verse. We’re going to be looking at Acts, God willing, in the Spring and when we do we’ll see how important this verse is.
It reads:
‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’
The disciples had to wait before they started their mission so they could receive the power of the Holy Spirit in order to be effective witnesses, effective at going and making disciples.
And we cannot be effective at making disciples, at being witnesses – without the power of the Spirit in us.
And we’ll see in Acts how the Spirit is at work in them so they can speak boldly and be courageous as the word of God is spread.
And as we go we also have this wonderful truth to hold on to from Peter when were faced with suffering through being a Christian witness:
1 Peter 4:14: ‘If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.’
What a glorious reminder that even in the hardest and dire of circumstances the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you – and therefore you are blessed.
You are blessed because you have the Spirit of power working in and through you. The Spirit that as we go and make disciples, opens up eyes, gives new hearts, brings life from death and shows people the wonders of Christ! What an encouragement that we have the power of the Spirit working in us and through us!
There’s been quite a lot there – and even more could have been said – so let me summarise with:
John Stott:
“Without the Spirit, Christian discipleship would be impossible. There can be no life without the life-giver, no understanding without the Spirit of truth, no fellowship without the unity of the Spirit, no Christlikeness apart from his fruit, and no witness without his power”
We are not alone. We have the Spirit of God with us. God with us.
The Third person of the Trinity promised to us, present in us, and powerfully at work through us.
So let us rely on him and determine to follow his lead in all that we do.
‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.’ (Romans 15:13).
Amen