5:00pm Sunday Worship Service
Sun, Jan 18, ‘26 - PM Services
Read God's Word: John 16:4b-11 (esp. 7)
The Holy Spirit is fully God and a distinct Person from the Father and the Son.
• v. 7-We are richly blessed that Jesus ascended to heaven and sent the Spirit (the Helper) to come to us:
• Every true believer since Pentecost gets the Holy Spirit-all day, every day.
• Everything that the Spirit does is in perfect unity with the Father and the Son-never contrast or contradiction.
• He especially draws attention to and glorifies the Son and his gospel.
• The ministry of the Spirit is how Jesus could say to his disciples that A) was going away (ascending back to heaven), but also that B) he would be with them to the end of the age (until his return)-both!
• The Spirit is our Helper, and strong implication is that we need HELP!
Evil is easy. Holy is hard.
Deity-The Holy Spirit is fully God.
-Inferred:
• Jesus ascribes to the Holy Spirit equal status (deity) with the Father and the Son (himself). (Mt 28:19; 1 Cor 12:4-6; 2 Cor 13:14; Eph 4:4-6; 1 Ptr 1:2; Jd 20-21)
• David shows the Holy Spirit to be omnipresent, an attribute of no created being but of God alone. And the Holy Spirit's presence is equated with God's presence. (Ps 139:7-12)
• Paul attributes the Holy Spirit with omniscience, another attribute of God alone. (1 Cor 2:10b-11)
Directly Stated:
• Peter states the deity of the Holy Spirit clearly to Ananias in Acts 5:3-4.
• Paul says that believers are the temple of God by being the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor 3:16; And later providing continued clarity...1 Cor 6:19-20)
• John the Apostle says the new birth (regeneration, conversion) is a gift that only God can give-"born of God" 1 Jn 3:9—however, John also records Jesus' teaching that it is the Holy Spirit who brings the new birth. (In 3:5-7)
Personhood-The Holy Spirit is a distinct person. (Third Person of the Trinity)
- Not an impersonal force
• Not an "it", but a "he".
• The original Grook of the NT enables this point to be clear!-"Spirit" is neuter, not masculine, and would normally get the neuter pronoun "it"; however, in the NT the masculine pronoun "he" is interestingly applied to the Holy Spirit.
- The same scriptures that ascribe to the Holy Spirit equal status (deity) with the Father and the Son ALSO ascribe to the Holy Spirit equal personhood with the Father and the Son.
• If the Father and the Son are both persons in those passages, then so is the Holy Spirit.
- The Holy Spirit is called Counselor or Comforter throughout John's Gospel, which speaks to his personhood—a person who counsels or comforts other persons (in 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7).
- Other personal activities of the Holy Spirit include:
• Teaching (Jn 14:26)
• Bearing witness (Jn 15:26; Rm 8:16)
• Interceding or praying (Rm 8:26-27)
• Searching the depths of God (1 Cor 2:10)
• Knowing the thoughts of God (1 Cor 2:11)
• Wilfully deciding to give some gifts to some and other gifts to others (1 Cor 12:11)
• Forbidding or not allowing certain activities (Acts 16:6-7)
• Speaking (Acts 8:29; 13:2; and other passages in both OT & NT)
• Evaluating and approving a wise course of action (Acts 15:28)
• Being grieved by sin in the lives of Christians (Eph 4:30)
- In several passages the Holy Spirit and the power of God are listed side-by-side as distinct and separate-meaning the Holy Spirit is not simply another name for the power of God (as an "it") but is a person who bears and manifests the power of God, because he is God. (Lk 4:14; Acts 10:38; Rm 15:13; 1 Cor 2:4)
Gal 5:22-26 (esp. 25)-But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
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