What is a Holy Spirit?
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
David C. Wright
John 14: 15-17,25-26; Galatians 5:16-26
March 21, 2010
Each Sunday
morning, the fifth graders in a certain Sunday School class would
line up and each one would recite their one section of the Apostle’s
Creed in order. All went well for several weeks until one
particular Sunday. One girl began, “I believe in God
the Father.” Other lines about God the Father followed. Another
child continued, “And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our
Lord.” Other lines about Jesus followed. And
then there was silence. No one spoke. Finally a girl,
who thought she had figured out the problem, stood up and proclaimed, “I’m
sorry, sir, but the boy who believes in the Holy Ghost is absent
today.”
I think that may be the
case in the church today. It’s fairly easy for most of us affirm
our belief in God the Father and in Jesus Christ, but there aren’t many
of us who understand much about who the Holy Spirit is. Talk about a “Ghost” or
Spirit seems pretty mysterious and a little bit spooky. And that makes
it hard for us to believe in the Holy Spirit in any practical sense! (Vivian
Parks & “Holy Ghost”)
I remember learning a
little about the Holy Spirit in church as I grew up. In fact my childhood
pastor called the Holy Spirit the “Cinderella member of the Trinity.” By
that he meant that the Holy Spirit was often overlooked and forgotten. (SLIDE) Look
at the Apostles Creed. There’s one sentence about God, the Father,
with some description about his role. The bulk of the creed focuses on
Jesus. The creed only says that we believe in the Holy Ghost, as part of
a series of things in which we believe. The book we are using to guide
our small group studies on the Apostles Creed, gives __ pages to the Holy Spirit,
relegating it to part of a chapter on ___! The Holy Spirit has often been
the forgotten member of the Trinity.
But during my youth an
interesting thing happened. People began to rediscover the Holy Spirit. The
Jesus movement surged across America and the Spirit was a big part of that movement. The
charismatic movement also began to sweep through churches across all denominational
lines. Episcopalians, Methodists, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, and even
a few Presbyterians began to experience the Holy Spirit in a whole new way. Many
people experienced spiritual renewal, grew in their love for the Scriptures,
found their prayer and worship life enlivened, and became involved in service
to the world. Their experiences with the Spirit were often emotional, and
many of them spoke in tongues.
More conservative and
traditional churches were afraid of this movement and condemned it. The
Bible college I attended was so concerned about this “new” Holy Spirit
stuff that they revised their doctrinal statement to ban certain gifts of the
Spirit, like speaking in tongues. All the faculty and even students were
required to sign the new statement. Professors who refused to sign lost
their jobs. Students who refused were not permitted to graduate. I
refused to sign. I didn’t personally have any of those disputed gifts,
but I was not about to say that the Spirit couldn’t give them as it pleased! Since
I refused to sign I was labeled as having “doctrinally variant” views
and was no longer permitted to graduate. I ended up transferring to another
college. So now you know. Your pastor was once kicked out of Bible
College! (Actually I was kicked out twice, but that’s another story!)
Who is the Holy Spirit? How
does he (or she, or it) operate in our lives today? How do we figure out
when peoples’ claims about the Spirit are true and when they are way out
in left field? What difference does our confession that we believe in the
Holy Spirit make in the way we live? Let’s take a quick jaunt through
the Bible and see what we can learn.
The Holy Spirit first
appears in the second verse of the Bible- in Genesis 1:2- when the Spirit or
wind of God hovered over the waters of the earth. The Hebrew word for
spirit is the same word used for wind or breath. It is the breath or Spirit
of God that gave life to Adam. Through the Old Testament, the Spirit comes
and goes- empowering a military leader here, inspiring a prophet there, convicting
a king of sin elsewhere. The movement of the Spirit is unpredictable and
mostly hidden in the Old Testament.
Then comes Jesus. He
is conceived by the Holy Spirit, yet also filled with the Spirit at his baptism. He
then promises to send the Spirit to his followers. That’s what our
Scripture lesson from John’s gospel is about. The setting is the
time shortly before the crucifixion. Jesus is preparing his followers for
the time when he will not be with them any longer. (SLIDE) He says, “I
will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This
is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees
him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will
be in you. I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But
the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach
you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” (John
14:16,17, 25,26)
Jesus calls the Spirit
an “Advocate” which can also be translated “Comforter” or “Helper.” Jesus
will no longer be physically present with them, but his Spirit, the Comforter,
will be sent to be with them and in them. That is an important point to
note. God’s Spirit dwells in the followers of Jesus. It is
the presence of Jesus with us each day. That means that we are not alone. As
followers of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of Jesus, remains with us always.
Jesus goes on to say that
this Spirit will lead us into truth. The Spirit helps us discern truth
from error. It helps us interpret the Bible. It helps us evaluate
the beliefs and values of culture. The Spirit leads us into truth.
Later, after his death
and resurrection, as the coming of the Spirit draws closer, Jesus tells his followers
to wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Spirit. (SLIDE) He says, “You
will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts
1:8)
We see here another characteristic
of the presence of the Spirit. It gives power for witness. One of
the marks of the presence of the Spirit is a passion for evangelism. The
Spirit was soon to drive those new believers out of their comfortable community
in Jerusalem out to Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. The Spirit
gives us a heart to reach out to those who haven’t experienced the love,
forgiveness, and richness of life which is found in Jesus Christ.
One day, while standing
on a bridge, Winnie the Pooh noticed Eeyore floating below on the river. Pooh
yelled down, “Did you fall into the river Eeyore?”
“Yes, silly of me
wasn’t it?” replied Eeyore.
“Is the water cold
today?” asked Pooh.
“Yes, the dampness,
you know,” said Eeyore.
“You really ought
to be more careful!” warned Pooh.
“Thanks,” responded
Eeyore.
After a moment of silence
Eeyore asked, “Pooh, if it wouldn’t be too much bother, would you
mind rescuing me?”
All around our church
live people who long to be rescued- rescued from meaninglessness, brokenness,
emptiness, low self-esteem, and loneliness. They’re waiting for someone
who will love them enough to share a word of hope and encouragement with them. They’re
looking for a church which will believe in them enough to reach out to them,
taking whatever risks necessary to lead them into a relationship with
God through Jesus Christ. The passion for helping to rescue people who
need to experience God’s love is a sign of the presence of God’s
Spirit.
So far we’ve seen
that the Spirit is a comforting presence. The Spirit leads us into truth. And
the Spirit impels us to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with others. Finally,
in Paul’s letter to the Galatians we learn that the Spirit changes our
hearts. (SLIDE)
Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For
what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires
is opposed to the flesh. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication,
impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger,
quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like
these. (Gal. 5:16, 17a, 19-21a)
Paul asserts that human
nature is bent toward selfishness and sin. All those things Paul lists
as coming from our “fleshly” nature are self-centered and ultimately
destructive. These are the fruits of the natural person, or the “flesh” as
Paul calls it. We don’t need to teach these things to our children;
they just come naturally to us.
But God is not content
to leave us this way. Not only has Jesus died to forgive our sins, to take
our judgment for us- but God sends his Spirit to complete the work by changing
our hearts and making us new people. As we said in our Assurance of Pardon
this morning, “Anyone who is in Christ, is a new creation! The
old life has gone. A new life has begun.” God’s Spirit
produces a very different kind of character in us than we can naturally produce
on our own.
Later in Galatian, Paul
calls these new character traits “fruits” of the Spirit. (SLIDE)
What kind of “fruit” does the Spirit produce?
*Love, looking out for the best interest of the other person, rather than our
own best interest.
*Joy- an attitude toward life characterized by gratitude for God’s many
good gifts.
*Peace- an inner calmness as well as peaceful relationships with others.
*Patience- tolerance for the differences in others and in the unexpected events
of life.
*Kindness- just what it says.
*Generosity- the understanding that all we have belongs to God anyway, so we
don’t hold on too tightly to our possessions.
*Faithfulness- loyalty to God and others.
*Gentleness- a sensitivity to the needs of others.
*Self-control- we are not ruled by our passions and desires.
Most of these things have
to do with how we relate to other people. That’s because the Spirit
is often involved in community, in the church, which we’ll be talking about
next week. The Spirit changes our character and temperament by the fruit
he produces in our lives.
Finally, in verse 25 Paul says that the Spirit
will guide us. “If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided
by the Spirit.” The Spirit guides us to live the right way!...)
Is God’s Spirit
actively present in your life? How would you know? Consider the marks
of the Spirit we’ve talked about today. (SLIDE) Do you ever
sense God’s presence with you? Are you able to discern truth from
error? Does the Bible come alive for you when you study it? Has God
given you a heart to reach out to those who don’t know him? Is there
evidence of the fruits of the Spirit in your life? (Do you ever have a
sense that God has guided your life?) If these marks are present, give
thanks to God and be assured that he is at work in your life through his Spirit.
If these marks of the Spirit are not present
in your life, what should you do? Begin with Jesus. He is the one
who sends the Spirit. Have you trusted him as your Lord and Savior? Jesus
makes it clear that the Spirit indwells his followers. Are you a follower
of Jesus? If you are his follower, but are not experiencing some or all
of these evidences of the Spirit, I would encourage you to pray and ask God to
fill you with his Spirit. Then regularly carve out times of quiet to reflect
on God’s presence in your life. Many of us are so busy that our schedules
allow no time for quiet reflection. Or if we have the time, the constant
distraction of TV or music or computers makes it certain that we are never really
quiet before the Lord. The Spirit’s work is often a quiet one requiring
quiet time to reflect on its presence.?
I’d like to close
with a prayer written by Christina Rossetti. It picks up on some of the
images of the Holy Spirit we find in the Bible.
As the wind is thy symbol,
so forward our goings.
As the dove, so launch
us heavenwards.
As water, so purify our
spirits.
As a cloud, so abate our
temptations.
As dew, so revive our
languor.
As fire, so purge out
our dross. Amen.
Return to the Sermons Menu