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| ...he saw the Spirit of God coming down on him as a dove |
Review
Last week when we started our study on the Holy Spirit we first asked, Who is the Holy Spirit?
We said that He is a person not a vague, ethereal shadow, nor an impersonal force. He is a person equal in every way with God the Father and God the Son. He is considered to be the third member of the Godhead or the Trinity. We said that his role as a member of the Trinity, in the plan for redemption, He sees to it that every person feels a call toward God's saving grace.
John 14:26 (NLT) But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
John 16:5-8 (NLT)5 “But now I am going away to the One who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I am going.6 Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you.7 But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.8 And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. (Emphasis mine)
The Father designed and organized how mankind would be redeemed, the Son carried out the plan. The Holy Spirit sees to it that every person feels a call toward God's saving grace.
The Holy Spirit has attributes that only a person could have. He has intelligence, feelings, a will, He prays, He does miracles (humans can’t do this), He can be lied to, He can be insulted, He teaches and He directs.
There are a couple of attributes we discussed last week that I want to spend a little more time on today.
The Holy Spirit has attributes that only a person could have. He has intelligence, feelings, a will, He prays, He does miracles (humans can’t do this), He can be lied to, He can be insulted, He teaches and He directs.
There are a couple of attributes we discussed last week that I want to spend a little more time on today.
The first is that "The Holy Spirit Has Feelings"
Last week we said that we can hurt the Holy Spirit’s feeling, or grieve Him. How? Through dependency on self, pride, selfishness, distrust, worry, fear, anger, resentment, unforgiveness, hatred and similar self-centered, negative actions. Although the Holy Spirit can be grieved he will never leave you because He is our seal, our guarantee.
Ephesians 4:30-32 (HCSB)30 And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by Him for the day of redemption.31 All bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice.32 And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.
Here’s another scripture about grieving the Holy Spirit, this one from the Old Testament.
Isaiah 63:10 (HCSB) But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He became their enemy ⌊and⌋ fought against them.
Isaiah is writing about the rebellion of Israel in their worshiping of idols and the wickedness that caused them to go into captivity. This verse is actually part of a sermon in Isaiah in which Israel is pleading for help, based on God’s past mercies.
The Spirit has feeling and emotions. Here is something from one of the reading plans that I did for this study.
For a time, whenever I read that we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit, I thought that was a bit of an exaggeration. It almost seems sacrilegious to say that I could grieve God. Who am I to have such power over the Spirit? That doesn't seem right. In fact, it even seemed wrong to say that God has feelings; for some reason I felt it belittled Him.
I struggled with these thoughts for a while until I finally realized where they were coming from. In our culture, having feelings or emotions is equated with weakness. This is a lie that is deeply ingrained in many of us.
God created feelings. Sure, like anything else, they can be misused and abused. But the intent and purpose of feelings came from God. Since He created emotions, why is it difficult to believe that He Himself has emotions? The Spirit is grieved when there is a breach in relationship, whether it be relationship with God or relationship with other people. When we are disunified, unloving, hateful, jealous, gossipy, etc., that is when we grieve the Spirit of God. And since He is the creator of emotions, I believe that the Spirit grieves more deeply than we can even understand.
How do you respond when you hear this? Does it bother you? When was the last time you were saddened because your sin pained the Holy Spirit?
I believe that if we truly cared about the Holy Spirit's grief, there would be fewer fights, divorces, and splits in our churches. Maybe it's not due to a lack of belief but rather a lack of concern. I pray for the day when believers care more about the Spirit's grief than their own. In fact, I pray that some of you readers would be broken over the grief you've placed on the Holy Spirit. So broken that you actually go and resolve any conflicts you have with other believers.
The other attribute that I want to talk about again today is that He can be insulted
Hebrews 10:26-29 (HCSB)26 For if we deliberately sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries.28 If anyone disregards Moses’ law, he dies without mercy, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses.29 How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
Deliberate sin is a rejection of the sacrifice of Jesus and to be honest a believer can’t be guilty of this because remember if your salvation was authentic then it is permanent. Deliberate sin The threefold charge follows: (1) contempt for Christ in the thought of trampling under foot; (2) rejecting the blood-bought covenant as worthless and unholy; (3) despising the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
A deliberate rejection of the cross by one who knows the way leaves God with no alternative. When mercy is rejected, judgment must fall. - The Wycliffe Bible Commentary.
Many people who believe that you can, in fact, lose your salvation through willful sin use this verse. So let me see if we can’t clear this up.
The verses we just read warns against the sin of apostasy.
Apostasy is an intentional falling away or defection. Apostates are those who move toward Christ, right up to the edge of saving belief, who hear and understand the Gospel, and are on the verge of saving faith, but then reject what they have learned and turn away. These are people who are perhaps even aware of their sin and even make a profession of faith. But rather than going on to spiritual maturity, their interest in Christ begins to diminish, the things of the world have more attraction to them rather than less, and eventually they lose all desire for the things of God and they turn away. The Lord illustrated these types of people in the second and third soils of Matthew 13:1-9,18-23. These are those who “receive with joy” the things of the Lord, but who are drawn away by the cares of the world or turned off by difficulties they encounter because of Christ.
John tells us that “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9).
Apostates have knowledge, but no application of that knowledge. They can be found in the presence of the light of Christ, mostly in the church, among God’s people. Judas Iscariot is the perfect example—he had knowledge but he lacked true faith.
Having turned his back on the truth, and with full knowledge choosing to willfully and continually sin, the apostate is then beyond salvation because he has rejected the one true sacrifice for sins: the Lord Jesus Christ. If Christ’s sacrifice is rejected, then all hope of salvation is gone. To turn away willfully from this sacrifice leaves no sacrifice; it leaves only sin, the penalty for which is eternal death. This passage is not speaking of a believer who falls away, but rather someone who may claim to be a believer, but truly is not. Anyone who apostatizes is proving he never had genuine faith to begin with. - Read more:http://www.gotquestions.org/Hebrews-10-26.html#ixzz3c3ZX0fNC
Now let’s continue with the attributes of the Holy Spirit, identified in scripture, that show that He is a person and not a “thing” or an “it”. There are only two more:
John 14:26 (HCSB) But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit—the Father will send Him in My name—will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.
The teaching that Jesus did before He was crucified presented a new way of living in accordance with the way God wanted man to relate to Him and to each other but it wasn’t complete. It was going to be completed by the coming of the Holy Spirit. His ministry to believers would be to teach
John 16:5-12 (HCSB)5 “But now I am going away to Him who sent Me, and not one of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’6 Yet, because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.7 Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you.8 When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment:9 About sin, because they do not believe in Me;10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me;11 and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.12 “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now.
Acts 8:29 (HCSB) The Spirit told Philip, “Go and join that chariot.”
Romans 8:14 (HCSB) All those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.
The Spirit does the leading or directing
Again the attributes of the Holy Spirit, that only a person can have, are:
The Holy Spirit is a Person but He is also God
As we see the Holy Spirit has attributes that only a person can have but we have also said that he is God. As God He has attributes that only God has.
These are theological words that essentially mean that the Spirit is
Zechariah 4:6 (HCSB) So he answered me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by strength or by might, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of Hosts.
Psalm 139:7-10 (HCSB)7 Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?8 If I go up to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.9 If I live at the eastern horizon ⌊or⌋ settle at the western limits,10 even there Your hand will lead me; Your right hand will hold on to me.
1 Corinthians 2:10 (HCSB) Now God has revealed ⌊these things⌋ to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
These are some of His attributes that we will never fully grasp as human beings. Though we will never be able to perfectly articulate or completely understand these attributes,sort of like explaining the Trinity, these aspects of the Spirit lead us to praise, even with imperfect words and incomplete understanding!
We spent so much time in review and discussion of apostasy that we only had time for one of the names of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit moved the authors of all 66 books to record exactly what He breathed into their hearts and minds. One person said, “As a ship is moved through the water by wind in its sails, so the biblical writers were borne along by the Spirit’s impulse.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (HCSB)16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Peter 1:20-21 (HCSB)20 First of all, you should know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation,21 because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
Next week we will continue with names of the Holy Spirit in scripture. We may be able to start on the symbols of the Holy Spirit in scripture, After we finish with the names and symbols we will start studying the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Christians spend most of our time talking about the Holy Spirit from the standpoint of Jesus' telling his disciples that He is sending the Comforter, and then the Holy Spirit's coming on the Day of Pentecost, how we are filled with the Holy Spirit and how the He guides us. However as we said from the very beginning the Holy Spirit is God so He was there during creation, He was revealed throughout the writings of the Old Testament, and there were instances where He fell on people. One example is:
1 Samuel 10:9-10 (HCSB) 9 When Saul turned around to leave Samuel, God changed his heart, and all the signs came about that day. 10 When Saul and his attendant arrived at Gibeah, a group of prophets met him. Then the Spirit of God took control of him, and he prophesied along with them.
Last week we said that we can hurt the Holy Spirit’s feeling, or grieve Him. How? Through dependency on self, pride, selfishness, distrust, worry, fear, anger, resentment, unforgiveness, hatred and similar self-centered, negative actions. Although the Holy Spirit can be grieved he will never leave you because He is our seal, our guarantee.
Ephesians 4:30-32 (HCSB)30 And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by Him for the day of redemption.31 All bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice.32 And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.
Here’s another scripture about grieving the Holy Spirit, this one from the Old Testament.
Isaiah 63:10 (HCSB) But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He became their enemy ⌊and⌋ fought against them.
Isaiah is writing about the rebellion of Israel in their worshiping of idols and the wickedness that caused them to go into captivity. This verse is actually part of a sermon in Isaiah in which Israel is pleading for help, based on God’s past mercies.
The Spirit has feeling and emotions. Here is something from one of the reading plans that I did for this study.
For a time, whenever I read that we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit, I thought that was a bit of an exaggeration. It almost seems sacrilegious to say that I could grieve God. Who am I to have such power over the Spirit? That doesn't seem right. In fact, it even seemed wrong to say that God has feelings; for some reason I felt it belittled Him.
I struggled with these thoughts for a while until I finally realized where they were coming from. In our culture, having feelings or emotions is equated with weakness. This is a lie that is deeply ingrained in many of us.
God created feelings. Sure, like anything else, they can be misused and abused. But the intent and purpose of feelings came from God. Since He created emotions, why is it difficult to believe that He Himself has emotions? The Spirit is grieved when there is a breach in relationship, whether it be relationship with God or relationship with other people. When we are disunified, unloving, hateful, jealous, gossipy, etc., that is when we grieve the Spirit of God. And since He is the creator of emotions, I believe that the Spirit grieves more deeply than we can even understand.
How do you respond when you hear this? Does it bother you? When was the last time you were saddened because your sin pained the Holy Spirit?
I believe that if we truly cared about the Holy Spirit's grief, there would be fewer fights, divorces, and splits in our churches. Maybe it's not due to a lack of belief but rather a lack of concern. I pray for the day when believers care more about the Spirit's grief than their own. In fact, I pray that some of you readers would be broken over the grief you've placed on the Holy Spirit. So broken that you actually go and resolve any conflicts you have with other believers.
The other attribute that I want to talk about again today is that He can be insulted
Hebrews 10:26-29 (HCSB)26 For if we deliberately sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries.28 If anyone disregards Moses’ law, he dies without mercy, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses.29 How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
Deliberate sin is a rejection of the sacrifice of Jesus and to be honest a believer can’t be guilty of this because remember if your salvation was authentic then it is permanent. Deliberate sin The threefold charge follows: (1) contempt for Christ in the thought of trampling under foot; (2) rejecting the blood-bought covenant as worthless and unholy; (3) despising the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
A deliberate rejection of the cross by one who knows the way leaves God with no alternative. When mercy is rejected, judgment must fall. - The Wycliffe Bible Commentary.
Many people who believe that you can, in fact, lose your salvation through willful sin use this verse. So let me see if we can’t clear this up.
The verses we just read warns against the sin of apostasy.
Apostasy is an intentional falling away or defection. Apostates are those who move toward Christ, right up to the edge of saving belief, who hear and understand the Gospel, and are on the verge of saving faith, but then reject what they have learned and turn away. These are people who are perhaps even aware of their sin and even make a profession of faith. But rather than going on to spiritual maturity, their interest in Christ begins to diminish, the things of the world have more attraction to them rather than less, and eventually they lose all desire for the things of God and they turn away. The Lord illustrated these types of people in the second and third soils of Matthew 13:1-9,18-23. These are those who “receive with joy” the things of the Lord, but who are drawn away by the cares of the world or turned off by difficulties they encounter because of Christ.
John tells us that “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9).
Apostates have knowledge, but no application of that knowledge. They can be found in the presence of the light of Christ, mostly in the church, among God’s people. Judas Iscariot is the perfect example—he had knowledge but he lacked true faith.
Having turned his back on the truth, and with full knowledge choosing to willfully and continually sin, the apostate is then beyond salvation because he has rejected the one true sacrifice for sins: the Lord Jesus Christ. If Christ’s sacrifice is rejected, then all hope of salvation is gone. To turn away willfully from this sacrifice leaves no sacrifice; it leaves only sin, the penalty for which is eternal death. This passage is not speaking of a believer who falls away, but rather someone who may claim to be a believer, but truly is not. Anyone who apostatizes is proving he never had genuine faith to begin with. - Read more:http://www.gotquestions.org/Hebrews-10-26.html#ixzz3c3ZX0fNC
Today's Study
He teaches and directs
The teaching that Jesus did before He was crucified presented a new way of living in accordance with the way God wanted man to relate to Him and to each other but it wasn’t complete. It was going to be completed by the coming of the Holy Spirit. His ministry to believers would be to teach
John 16:5-12 (HCSB)5 “But now I am going away to Him who sent Me, and not one of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’6 Yet, because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.7 Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you.8 When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment:9 About sin, because they do not believe in Me;10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me;11 and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.12 “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now.
He gives directions
Romans 8:14 (HCSB) All those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.
The Spirit does the leading or directing
Again the attributes of the Holy Spirit, that only a person can have, are:
- Intelligence,
- Feelings,
- A will,
- He prays,
- He does miracles,
- He can be lied to,
- He can be insulted,
- He teaches
- He directs.
The Holy Spirit is a Person but He is also God
- Omnipotent
- Omnipresent
- Omniscient
These are theological words that essentially mean that the Spirit is
All-powerful - Omnipotent
Present everywhere - Omnipresent
All-knowing - Omniscient
These are some of His attributes that we will never fully grasp as human beings. Though we will never be able to perfectly articulate or completely understand these attributes,sort of like explaining the Trinity, these aspects of the Spirit lead us to praise, even with imperfect words and incomplete understanding!
Names of the Holy Spirit in Scripture
Author of Scripture:
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (HCSB)16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Peter 1:20-21 (HCSB)20 First of all, you should know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation,21 because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
Next week we will continue with names of the Holy Spirit in scripture. We may be able to start on the symbols of the Holy Spirit in scripture, After we finish with the names and symbols we will start studying the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Christians spend most of our time talking about the Holy Spirit from the standpoint of Jesus' telling his disciples that He is sending the Comforter, and then the Holy Spirit's coming on the Day of Pentecost, how we are filled with the Holy Spirit and how the He guides us. However as we said from the very beginning the Holy Spirit is God so He was there during creation, He was revealed throughout the writings of the Old Testament, and there were instances where He fell on people. One example is:
1 Samuel 10:9-10 (HCSB) 9 When Saul turned around to leave Samuel, God changed his heart, and all the signs came about that day. 10 When Saul and his attendant arrived at Gibeah, a group of prophets met him. Then the Spirit of God took control of him, and he prophesied along with them.
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