"What is the Holy Spirit?"

At the church where I serve, we have been spending our time together looking at what we believe as a church as it is contained in the doctrinal statement of our church. This week, I would like for us to look at the sixth statement that comprises our doctrinal statement as a church. This sixth statement addresses what we believe as a church about the Holy Spirit. This statement summarizes the answer to the question “What is the Holy Spirit? And what does the Holy Spirit do?" So let’s look at this sixth statement of our doctrinal statement together:

           

We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of its guilt. He regenerates sinners, and in Him they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.

 

Now as we have talked about throughout this series, to fully understand what is being communicated in this statement, we first need to understand what all the church mumbo jumbo talk words in this statement mean. So, as we have done throughout this series, I would like for us to break down this statement into parts so that we can come to a better understanding of what is being said here.

First, let’s take a minute and unpack the phrase "We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ." When we say that we believe the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, we are saying the Holy Spirit is a person. This morning, the Holy Spirit is a person; the Holy Spirit as we will see, is a He. The Holy Spirit is not a force; the Holy Spirit is not an “it”.

Instead the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead. As we talked about when we launched into this series, God exists in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons. This phrase is referred to in church mumbo jumbo talk as the doctrine of the Trinity. Simply put, the doctrine of the Trinity is the belief that God the Father is God, Jesus Christ is God and the Holy Spirit is God.

God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are each eternal in being, which means that they have always existed.  God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are identical in nature, which means that they possess the same character qualities. God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are equal in power and glory, which means that they are worthy of honor and worship as God. God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are having precisely the same attributes and perfections, which means that they are all equally perfect.

In addition, the Holy Spirit, as part of the Trinity, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, in everything that the Holy Spirit does, He does in order to make much of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is consistently at work to influence the opinion of others in a way that enhances Jesus reputation in the eyes of others.

Now a natural question that arises here is "Well Dave, how exactly does the Holy Spirit work to influence the opinions of others in order to enhance Jesus reputation in the eyes of others?" That is a great question, and there are several ways in which the Holy Spirit's activity in the world makes much of Jesus. And in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of John, we see Jesus reveal exactly how the Holy Spirit influences the opinion of others in a way that enhances Jesus reputation in the eyes of others.

In this section of the gospel of John that we are going to look at this morning, Jesus had just told His closest followers that He was leaving them and that everyone that was opposed to Jesus was going to hate them. Jesus also explained to His followers that the reason that He was telling them this was to keep them from stumbling.

Jesus was letting them know, in advance, that they were going to become outcasts and that people would think that persecuting and killing them would result in them receiving spiritual brownie points from God. Now, with the context in which Jesus words will take place in mind, let’s jump into this conversation that Jesus was having with His disciples, beginning in John 16:5:

"But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?' "But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart."But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.

Now imagine yourself as one of the disciples: what would you be thinking? I don’t know about you, but here is what I would be thinking at this point: “Jesus, I have a question: How is it to our advantage that You are going away? And who is this Helper anyways? And what is He going to help us with?”

The word Helper, in the language that this letter was originally written in, was a legal term that referred to one who appears on behalf of another. This word conveys the sense of one that provides legal counsel, which is why some of your Bibles refer to the Helper as the Counselor. Jesus is explaining to the disciples that His departure from them would result in Him sending someone else to them. Jesus here is revealing the reality that after His departure from the earth, He would send this Helper, this Counselor to earth.

And this Helper, this counselor, would be the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. And as Jesus continues His conversation with the disciples, we see Him reveal exactly how the Holy Spirit would influence the opinion of others in a way that enhances Jesus reputation in the eyes of others, beginning in verse 8:

"And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

Here we see Jesus begin to explain to His closest followers the Holy Spirit’s function and activity here on earth. First, Jesus states that the Holy Spirit, upon His arrival, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. This is what is referred to in the next phrase of the doctrinal statement, which says “He convicts the world of its guilt."

Now, when Jesus refers to the world here, He is referring to everything in the world system that is hostile to God and that sets itself up in opposition to God and the kingdom of God. Jesus point here is that as the Helper, the Holy Spirit will act like a prosecuting attorney to bring about the world’s conviction of selfishness and rebellion.

You see, there is a difference between conviction and conversion. Jesus here is revealing for us the reality that one of the roles that the Holy Spirit performs is to reveal to those in the world who reject God and the word of God the evidence of their guilt before God. And that evidence, according to Jesus, concerns sin, righteousness, and judgment.

Now a clear and simple definition of sin is that sin refers to acts of commission and omission that are committed against God and others that flow from our selfish rebellion against God and the word of God. Jesus here is revealing the reality that the Holy Spirit provides the evidence that those who oppose God are guilty of selfishness and rebellion because they did not believe that Jesus was who He said He was. Instead of placing their confident trust in Jesus, they selfishly rebelled against Jesus. Instead of loving God and others, they instead chose to love themselves over God and others.

When the Bible uses the word righteousness, a clear and simple definition of righteousness is that righteousness is the quality or state of being right. Deep huh. Instead of recognizing that God is right, they believed that they were right. Jesus point here is that the Holy Spirit provides the evidence that those who oppose God are guilty because God is right and they are wrong. And that evidence, Jesus explains is in the fact that He is going to the Father and that they will no longer see Him. Jesus is revealing for us the reality that the resurrection of Jesus provides the evidence that Jesus was who He said He was and that God was right and those who reject Jesus are wrong.

When Jesus uses the word judgment here, this word refers to the activity of Jesus as the just judge. Jesus point is that the Holy Spirit provides the evidence that those who oppose God are guilty because the ruler of this world has been judged. The ruler of this world is Satan, who is the leader of the cosmic rebellion against God and the word of God.  Jesus life, death, and resurrection would provide the evidence that Satan has been defeated and that justice has ruled and reigned.

And the Holy Spirit, like a great prosecuting attorney, will provide the evidence that will result in a guilty verdict for those who oppose God and reject the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. The Holy Spirit reveals the selfishness and rebellion of those in humanity who reject God and the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit reveals that God is right and those who oppose God are wrong. And the Holy Spirit reveals that the just God wins and Satan loses.

Tomorrow, we will see Jesus transition from explaining the role that the Holy Spirit would play in the lives of those who oppose God to explaining the role that the Holy Spirit would play in the lives of those who follow Jesus…