Three in One
06/09/2002 - God the Holy Spirit
This morning we conclude our Three in One series with a look at God the Holy Spirit, the most misunderstood person of the Trinity. This week I read about a Sunday School teacher who used a pretzel to teach her class about the Trinity. She said just like a pretzel is one piece of dough with three holes, so God is one substance with three persons. Then she asked if one of the kids could name the three persons. And a little boy raised his hand and said, "Sure, I can, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Smoke!"
In his book Christianity 101, Dr. Gilbert Bilezikian tells the story of a new Christian who was talking to his pastor. The man didn't know the Bible very well and kept referring to "the Spook." The Spook showed me this and the Spook told me that and the Spook guided me in this decision. At first the pastor had no idea what he was talking about. Then it dawned on him "the Spook" was the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost as he's called in the old King James version of the Bible.
In the church where I grew up every Sunday morning we would start the worship service by singing the doxology. "Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen." And for the longest time, like that man, I thought the Holy Spirit was a ghost, a good ghost, even a holy ghost, but still a ghost.
So who is the Holy Spirit? There's a lot of confusion in the church today over the third person of the Trinity. One survey I read said that 55% of all Christians, over half, don't even believe in the Holy Spirit. The church where I was raised believed in the Holy Spirit, but we marginalized the Holy Spirit. We were scared of the Holy Spirit. We talked a lot about God the Father and God the Son, but not much about God the Holy Spirit, because he can get out of control some times.
On the other extreme there are those churches that make a celebrity out of the Holy Spirit. They want a buzz so badly that they sacrifice truth in the process and that can result in contrived emotional theatrics. Neither one is what we're after. But we can't let ignorance on one extreme and excess on the other keep us from pursuing what's true about the third person of the Trinity. So who is the Holy Spirit?
Let's start with a foundational passage and look at what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in John 14:16-17. Before we read, let me tell you what's going on. In John 14 Jesus finds himself in an upper room in downtown Jerusalem with twelve very frightened friends on the night before his crucifixion.
He had just told them he was leaving them for good and these men who had left everything to follow Jesus had taken a free fall into an emotional black hole. Everything they thought was nailed down came loose that night. In the next twenty-four hours Jesus would be arrested, whipped, beaten and killed. All his disciples would run away from him. Peter would deny he ever knew him and Judas would commit suicide. All hell would break loose and Jesus knew it.
So after telling them he was leaving Jesus said this in John 14:16-17, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
On that dark night Jesus wanted his closest friends to know that he wasn't going to leave them stranded. He wasn't going to abandon them. Instead he promised to send them someone else to take his place. And that someone he calls another "Counselor," the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit of God.
The Greek word translated "Counselor" is the word paraclete. It's a word so pregnant with meaning that sometimes it's translated "Advocate," sometimes "Comforter," sometimes "Intercessor," sometimes "Helper." The word literally means, "one called alongside to help."
If the disciples of Jesus ever needed help it was now. For the last three and one-half years whenever the disciples needed help, Jesus was there. When they were lonely and needed a friend, Jesus was there. When they were struggling and needed to talk, Jesus was there. When they felt defeated and needed a lift, Jesus was there. When they were afraid and needed courage, Jesus was there. When they were confused and needed guidance, Jesus was there. But now he wasn't going to be there anymore. He was going away. So he sends them another helper to come alongside, a helper that he says will be inside them. That's the Holy Spirit.
We all need help, don't we? Some people don't think so. Like the story I heard about Muhammad Ali when he was on an airplane at the height of his career. The flight attendant saw that he wasn't wearing his seat belt and said, "Mr. Ali would you please buckle your seat belt?" Ali glared at her and said, "Superman don't need no seat belt." So she looked back at him and said, "Superman don't need no airplane either!"
We all need help and if you're a believer in Jesus Christ this morning, you have the Holy Spirit's help. The best help for whatever problem you're facing is right inside you. Did you hear me? If Jesus was a member of Valley View Community Church and you had a health problem or a marriage problem or a family problem or a financial problem whom would you go to first? Me, your pastor, or him? Would you go to your small group leader or Jesus? Your therapist or Jesus? Your spouse or Jesus? Your parents or Jesus? Your best friend or Jesus? I think we'd all go to Jesus first. Because none of those people, as valuable as they are, can take the place of Jesus.
The one who's taken Jesus' place is the Holy Spirit. He's the one who was called to come alongside to help us, to take Jesus' place . Thank God for those people I just mentioned and go to them when you need to because the Holy Spirit uses them in our lives, but don't depend on them more than you depend on the Spirit of God who lives inside you. The best help for whatever problem you have is the Holy Spirit who Jesus said would be with you and in you. No other world religion or cult has a leader who says, "I will be in you!" But we do.
And when we go to the Holy Spirit for help we don't get third string help from the third person of the Trinity. We get the best God has to offer. The word Jesus uses for "another Counselor" is the Greek word "allos." In Greek there are two words for "another." One word, "heteros," means "another of a different kind." And the word "allos," means "another of the same kind." When we get the Holy Spirit we get all of God, we get the same kind of power that God the Father has and that Jesus the Son has.
Do you know how powerful the Holy Spirit is? Let me tell you. According to the Word of God, if there was no Holy Spirit there would be no creation of the universe, no human race, no virgin birth of Jesus, no sinless Savior, no resurrection from the dead, no Bible, no Christians, no restraint of evil in our world, no expectation of the return of Christ. Without the Holy Spirit there would be no nothing. He is all-powerful and he lives in you and he lives in me and he is absolutely essential for us to live out a supernatural Christian life.
I wouldn't be going to Ghana, Africa, tonight if I didn't believe in the Holy Spirit. I wouldn't get on that plane if I didn't believe that the Holy Spirit of God has led me to do this, has prepared me to do this, was going with me and was staying home to watch over my family. I know that in myself I have nothing to offer these dear African pastors. Nothing. But I believe with all my heart that the Holy Spirit has wonderful things to offer them through me.
So who is this Holy Spirit? Let me give you his resume. First, the Holy Spirit is a real person. Some people think the Holy Spirit's an "it," some impersonal force like we find in Star Wars , "the force be with you." Some think he floats around like Casper the friendly Holy Ghost. But he's not an "it," the personal pronoun that the Bible uses to refer to the Holy Spirit is "he." He's not a ghost. He's a real person with a mind, a will and emotions. He's a person that we can know, that we can relate to, that wants to be our friend and companion, not just a force or a power to be used.
Jesus calls him in John 14 a Counselor . If you've ever benefited from a counselor either formerly or informally you know they relate to you personally. They provide you with a safe place to share and they offer insight and support. They ask hard questions and listen well and give guidance. That's the role of the Holy Spirit as Counselor. A force can't do that, but a person can.
Look down at John 14:25-26, All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, 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.
The Holy Spirit's a teacher. If you've ever been inspired by a teacher, guided by a teacher, had a teacher call good things out of you, then you understand the Holy Spirit's role as a teacher. A force can't do that, but a person can.
The Holy Spirit's right here, right now teaching us. Like the wind we can't see him, but we can the see the effects of the wind. I'd hate to stand up here and speak to you without the power of the Holy Spirit. He speaks through his people and he speaks to his people.
There are times when I'm teaching the Word of God that I sense God's pleasure and the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit as teacher. It happens when there's a moment of unnatural, prolonged, hushed silence, when nobody's coughing or moving around, just listening. It happens when a new insight bursts into my mind right on the spot. It happens when I feel an unusual boldness to say hard things that are true. It happens when I have an almost "out of body" experience and sense that I'm watching somebody else teach. It happens when the Holy Spirit takes the truth and filters it uniquely through your grid to speak to you in a different way then he's speaking to the person next to you. It happens afterwards when a person tells me that the teaching was exactly what they needed to hear, or that they thought that I'd been reading their mail, or that they heard me say something that I know I didn't say. That's the Holy Spirit as teacher.
The Holy Spirit is a real person. Second, the Holy Spirit is a divine person. Just look at his name "Holy Spirit." "Holy" means that he's separate like God is separate. He's not like us. He's in a class all by himself. He's one of a kind. And like God he's a spirit. He's not confined to a body of flesh and blood. He's immaterial, intangible, invisible which makes him more powerful not less. He's just as much God as the Father is God and the Son is God.
He's part of this cosmic small group, this love filled, happy home at the center of the universe where God lives in perfect harmony and community with himself. There's no hierarchy in the Trinity. One person isn't better or more powerful than another. They're all equal. By the way, in that sense, the Trinity is the model for the community that God wants for our marriages, a place of mutual love and submission, not a place where wives serve and submit to their husbands, but where wives and husbands serve and submit to each other. Marriage was designed to be a community like the Trinity where we talk to each other, listen to each other, respect each other, serve each other, enjoy each other, work together, create together, have fun together, make each other look good. How many of us long for that kind of marriage, but never experience it. Yet someday we will when the marriage takes place between Christ and his church and we move into our dream house where we'll live together forever if the Holy Spirit lives inside of us. Does the Spirit live inside you?
In his book The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis takes his readers on a mythical bus tour of heaven and hell. And when the bus visits hell it's a dreary, foggy place with no color, just gray tones. And the people in hell aren't so much suffering as going about their normal, everyday business. Yet they're translucent which means you can see right through them. They're like shadowy ghosts, hollow, each one caught up in their own selfish life. Because of their self-centeredness they lack substance. And the longer they are there the less and less like persons they become.
But when the bus travels up to heaven everything is vibrant with color, the grass, and flowers and the trees are brilliant. Everything is larger than life and has more substance than anything on earth. The people who live in heaven are massive and magnificent. Lewis calls them "solid people." They reflect the glory and grandeur of their king. They're innocent and they care for others and they're free to be themselves. The Holy Spirit indwells every one of them and has made them solid people. Are you a solid person this morning? Do you have substance? Or are you just a hollow shadow?
Theologian Karl Barth once said, "Jesus Christ did not only reveal true God to man, he also revealed true man to man. He taught us how to become true human beings fulfilled in relationship with God."
The Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit is a divine person. And third, the Holy Spirit is a unique person. In the Bible he's described as clothing, a dove, fire, oil, a seal of identification, a down payment, a servant, water and wind. Like electricity he's easy to use but he's tough to explain. And Jesus says the world neither sees him nor knows him. He's unique to believers. Like radio waves that can't be picked up without a receiver so the world can't pick up the signals of the Holy Spirit because they don't have a spiritual receiver. But Jesus has implanted a receiver in every follower of his that's capable of picking up heaven's signals, the very voice of God.
The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:9,14, If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ ... because those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
If you're a believer you have the Spirit of God. But is your life being led by the Spirit of God? Are you in tune with the Holy Spirit? Do you hear the promptings of his voice or do you just pick up static on the line? When we're living in ways that are willfully disobedient to God, we're going to get nothing but static. When we're too busy to slow down and get alone and quiet with God we'll get nothing but static. Jesus' sinless life and his times of quiet and solitude with his heavenly Father kept static off the line.
The Holy Spirit wants to lead you through life. You weren't meant to live life on your own. We can't live life on our own and please God. Sometimes the Holy Spirit leads us to move. That's what he's prompted Steve and Rebekah Zanders to do. Today's their last Sunday at Valley View before they move to North Carolina where Steve will serve in a hospital at Wake Forest University. They wouldn't choose to go there necessarily, unless they knew the Spirit of God was leading them there.
The Holy Spirit has led me to go to Africa. In a moment we're going to hear from Erin Meier and Brenda Silk. The Spirit of God is leading Erin, a third year med student, to go to Mexico for the summer on a medical missions trip. Brenda is going to Botswana, Africa, for a few weeks in July to share the love of Christ through the Jesus film. Every one of these people can tell you firsthand how the Spirit of God leads.
And what he's leading us all to is Jesus. His goal for our lives is not North Carolina or Ghana or Mexico or Botswana, it's Jesus. Those are just courses in the curriculum of life. The goal of the Holy Spirit is to make you and me more like Jesus. He's out to transform us and make us more like Christ, to put him on display as an advertisement to the world. J. I. Packer calls the Holy Spirit "the shy sovereign." He says, "The Spirit is like a shy child, hiding behind the door. He's the floodlight illuminating the Lord Jesus. He's the contact lens that enables us to see Him clearly. He's the matchmaker, leading us to Christ. He's the channel through which Christ pours His life and power into us. But in all this, He keeps himself out of sight."
The Holy Spirit is at the heart and soul of our Christian faith. The Holy Spirit is into life change and transformation. And our relationship to the Spirit will determine how real and vibrant and powerful our Christian life turns out to be.
Do you have the Holy Spirit this morning? You do if you're a believer in Jesus Christ. Have you been accessing the Holy Spirit? Have you been inviting him to change your life and make you more like Jesus?
As we close in prayer, I want you in your own words, to invite the Spirit of God to be more active in your life. I want you to confess, if you need to, ways that you've limited him. Open yourself up to the Spirit and tell him that you want more of his control.