‘Behold, the Lamb of God’s
ide o amnos tou
theou
College Study
21st teaching
1.21.2013
The Persons of the Trinity:
“God the Holy Ghost”
Turn to John 14:15-17, 25-26
Tonight we’re going to look at this Helper, the
“third” Person of the Trinitiy, known as the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit. Of
the three Persons of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost is probably the least known
and the least understood. In fact, there is still tremendous confusion to this
day regarding the work and the nature of the Holy Ghost. This confusion has led
to numerous false doctrines, cults, heresies and all around general weirdness.
You need look no further than the hysteria of mass crowds
being “slain in the Spirit” or congregations crawling on all fours and “holy
barking” or experiencing uncontrollable “holy laughter” or people who talk
about mystical experiences in the Spirit as if He was some kind of
hallucinogenic drug.
Therefore, because of this great confusion, we need to have
a clear idea of just Who this third Person of the Trinity is and what exactly
He does. Let’s think of it this way: a man cannot solve a riddle unless he can
define the question. If you ask someone “what is black and white and read all
over”, they cannot answer the question unless they can define what “black” and
“white” and “read” are.
So too, no one will be able to turn to God as the answer of
life’s great questions unless they are able to know God, to define what we’re
talking about, in this sense, to understand the answer. Therefore, we must
provide the gospel, while defining the gospel. We must proclaim God, while defining
that same God. Saying “Jesus loves you” is meaningless unless they’ve got the
right Jesus in mind. Coming to God for salvation is meaningless unless they’ve
got the right God.
So let us embark on our study. The study of the Holy Spirit
is known as Pneumatology. Pneuma is
the Greek word for breath or spirit.
To give us as clear a picture as possible in as brief a
summary as possible about this third Person of the Trinity, this Holy Spirit,
tonight will break down into five parts:
1. The Personality of the Spirit
2. The Deity of the Spirit
3. The Effector of salvation
4. The Spirit of truth
5. The Helper
So first we’ll look at the fact of the Spirit being a
Person, and then the God-hood, the Deity, of the Holy Spirit, and then we’ll
consider three names or titles which apply to the Holy Spirit in an effort to
describe and summarize Who He is.
1.
The Personality of the Spirit
When we talk about the Personality of the Spirit, we’re
referring to those attributes which show the Holy Spirit to be a Person.
One of the biggest confusions out there about the Holy
Spirit is that He is not a He at all, but an It. A Holy Thing. Because He is
lesser known than the Father and the Son, the Spirit has come to be regarded as
not a person at all. And so there are those who believe that the Holy Spirit is
like a Life-force or an Energy or a Resource that can be tapped into or used
for whatever purposes.
In this mistaken sense, the Holy Spirit is nothing more
than a cold, uncaring, unfeeling force that can be used for good or for evil,
just like in Star Wars.
In actuality, the Bible clearly shows that the Holy Spirit
is a Person, not a Force.
The Bible shows at least three proofs that the Spirit is a
Person:
A. The Holy Spirit is referred to
as He.
Pretty obvious. The Holy Spirit is consistently referred to with
the masculine pronoun He, not It. All throughout Scripture, the Spirit
is a He, active and personal.
B. The Holy Spirit has a will.
In I Corinthians 12,
Paul writes in v.1-11. So you see
that the Spirit distributes spiritual gifts to each believer as He wills. An
inanimate object or a force cannot distribute anything as it wills because it has no will. The Spirit
has a will, has a mind, has a plan. This is an attribute of a Person, not a
thing.
C. The Holy Spirit has feelings.
Isaiah 63:7-10 is a
cool passage that outlines the history of Israel, but it also encompasses all
three Persons of the Trinity in a few verses. The LORD is the Father, the Angel
of His Presence who saves is the Son and of course the Holy Spirit is mentioned
there at the end. But it says that the Holy Spirit was grieved. Same idea in Ephesians 4:30, which says: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by
whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” A tree cannot feel grief.
A stone cannot feel grief. A force or energy cannot feel grief. A person can.
If the Holy Spirit can feel grief, then plainly He is a Person.
Furthermore, the Holy Spirit throughout Scripture
is said to search, to know, to speak, to testify, to reveal, to convince, to
command, to move, to help, to guide, to create, to seal, to sanctify, to
inspire and to perform miracles. All of these actions point to the biblical
fact that the Spirit is not some resource or energy to be used willy-nilly, but
that He is a Person just as much as the Father and the Son.
2.
The Deity of the Spirit
Going hand in hand with the concept of the Personality of
the Spirit is the truth of His Deity.
The Holy Spirit took part in Creation. He takes part in
Salvation. He was seen even at the baptism of Christ, descending from heaven as
a dove. Also, speaking of baptism, the formula is “baptizing in the NAME
(singular) of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. The Spirit is
also called “God’s Spirit” (I Cor 3:16)
and the “eternal Spirit” (Heb 9:14).
One very clear example of the Deity of the Spirit comes out
in Acts 5. To get the context, let’s
look at Acts 4:32-5:11.
You see that Ananias and Sapphira sold their stuff and then
gave part of the money, apparently trying to say that this was all of the money
even though they held some back. But Peter says to them first that they lied to
the Holy Spirit and then later on Peter says that they lied to God. The Holy
Spirit and God Himself are aligned as the party being lied to by Ananias.
This passage shows not only the Scriptural doctrine of the
Deity of the Holy Spirit, but it also shows that the early church, even from
the time of the apostles, believed that the Holy Spirit is God. This was not
made up in later years. This was a doctrine fully embraced by the orthodox
church in its earliest years.
*So we now know that the Holy Ghost is a Person and that He
is God. Next, we’ll consider three titles or functions of the Spirit:
3. The Effector of
salvation
The Holy Spirit is seen to be the Effector or the
Applier, if you like, of salvation. The Father was the Planner of salvation and
the Son was the Achiever of salvation, but the Holy Spirit is the active
Applier of salvation. The Spirit is the One who convinces, convicts and draws
an unbeliever to God.
John 16:5-11.
The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin and points to the Savior of the
world. See, your conscience is not really your guide. Sorry, Walt Disney.
Sorry, Jimmeny Cricket. But it is the Holy Spirit who actually whispers to the
unbelieving heart to repent and come to God.
What does this tell us? Ultimately, the work of redemption
is God’s work. It is up to you and I to defend our faith and to proclaim the
truth and the gospel, yes. But it is not in our hands to save someone.
Have you ever shared the truth of God with someone and
presented it as clearly as you thought it could be, and yet they turned away
from the perfect truth?
No matter how eloquent we are, how communicative we are,
how loving we are, how crisp and clear our arguments are, how beautiful our
churches might be or even how well we represent the gospel… the responsibility
of the saving of the soul is not ultimately ours. That lies with the Spirit of
God to convict a man’s unwashed soul.
This is at the same time both a relief and worry. We might
be relieved that the ultimate responsibility isn’t in our hands. If we have
done our duty, there is nothing more to it. We will not have failed a human
soul if we have presented the gospel to them. But at the same time, we might
come to worry about a human soul in need of salvation. Let that worry drive you
to intercede, to pray for the lost, that the Spirit would be free to convict
the heart of your friend or family member. The work of redemption is His alone.
4. The Spirit of truth
Three times in John’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit is called the
Spirit of truth. Let’s check out the three references:
John 14:17, here
we’re told that the Spirit of truth is for believers, and that He will dwell
with you and will be in you.
John 15:26, here
we see that the Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father, but also that the
Spirit will testify of Christ. This is a crucial bit of understanding if we’re
not to be confused about the Spirit. Many cults have missed this point. The
Holy Spirit is not about Himself. The Holy Spirit’s mission is to proclaim
Christ. That’s why, I believe, that many groups that focus too much on the Holy
Spirit, without realizing that the Spirit is meant to point to Christ, will
degenerate into weirdness. They’ve missed this important fact. The Holy Spirit
isn’t meant to take center-spotlight. Jesus is.
John 16:13, here
we find that the Spirit of truth is our guide for truth. Any spiritual or
biblical learning must come with the recognition that the Spirit of truth is
the One who guides us into truth. Seminary is great. Bible college is great.
Bible studies are great. Commentaries are great. But if the Spirit of truth
does not teach you, then you will really not learn anything regarding the
truths of God. Therefore, we need the Spirit of truth to give us understanding
concerning everything we learn here at this college Bible study.
You begin to see how dependent we are upon God and His
Spirit? Our efforts of evangelism are fruitless without Him and we can’t even
understand the Bible without Him.
5. The Helper
One of the most comforting doctrines about the
Holy Spirit comes here, and is found in this word Helper.
John 14:25-27, “These things I have spoken to you while
being present with you. But the Parakletos (the Helper), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach
you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I
give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
In Greek, the word is Parakletos.
The word can be translated in a variety of ways. Parakletos can mean Helper, but it can also mean Comforter,
Advocate, Encourager or Counselor. This word Parakletos perfectly applies to and summarizes the nature of the
Holy Spirit.
Think about it: Jesus has already told His disciples that
He’s going to be leaving them. Of course, the thought of life without the
physical presence Christ seemed to them frightening. But He comforts them by
telling them He will send the Comforter. He tells them that He gives His peace
to them, even as He says that One who brings peace, the Helper, will be given
to them.
This doctrine of the Parakletos, the Helper, the Comforter
is just that… immensely comforting.
The Greek philosopher and mathematician, Plato, was
probably a very, very, very smart guy. He said “Wealth is known to be a great
comforter”.
Lord Byron, the English poet, wrote “Oh Time! the
beautifier of the dead, adorer of ruin, comforter and only healer when the
heart hath bled…” And so of course you’ve heard the phrase “time heals all
wounds”.
William Drummond, a Scottish poet from before the time of
Byron, wrote “Sleep, Silence’s child, sweet father of soft rest, Prince who
approach peace to all mortals brings, Indifferent host to shepherds and kings;
Sole comforter to minds with grief opprest.”
Another English writer by the name of Charles Caleb Colton
said: “Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the physician
of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of him whom time cannot
console.”
So, here in the writings of some of the best and brightest
minds, here is the answer, here is the great comfort of life?
Is true comfort found in money, in wealth? No, people with
great wealth have no peace and no comfort. The Beatles said “Can’t buy me love,
can’t buy me love, money can’t buy me love”. And they were right. But money
also cannot buy you true comfort. John Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum
industry and became the first American worth more than a billion dollars. One
story goes that Rockefeller, a billionaire of American history, was once asked
the question “How much money is enough?” to which he replied “just one dollar
more”. Is that comfort? Is that peace?
Or what about Time? Is time a great comfort or a great
healer? Ever heard of a grudge. Human history has shown that the greatest and
the deepest hurts are those which scar for life. There are many things which
time cannot heal. Instead, the passing of time can embitter and obsess the
souls of men and women. Time may heal some wounds, but it leaves behind a whole
mess of scars.
So what about sleep? Maybe sleep is the best comforter in
life? But you and I are old enough to know that sleeping only saves your
problems for the next day. Like so many things in life, the comfort of sleep is
brief and transient. It comes and it goes.
So what about death? What about the great Equalizer? Is
death the true comforter? No. We know that a life without God passes into an
eternity in Hell where there is nothing that can be compared to comfort.
So what then? If not money nor time, sleep or death are the
great comforters? Then what? What else is there?
There are the words of Holy Scripture which have resounded
through the centuries “My peace I give to
you… do not let your heart be troubled… I will send you a Helper.” And we
have just such a Comforter as Christians, promised to us by our Lord.
There’s nothing you and I need to do for it. You already
have the promise of the Father. You already have the Helper, the Comforter, the
Spirit of truth. You don’t need to try to harness it or tap into it, He is already there for you, the great
source of comfort mankind will ever know. He will be with you in every
situation, in every grief, in every suffering, in every pain, in every loss. He
will be in you through your days, through it all.
You have a loving Father in God. What a Friend you have in
Jesus. And you have an ever-present Helper and Comforter.
And that ought to be immensely comforting.
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