A Note From Our Pastor
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Our Greatest Need #5: Who or What is the Holy Spirit?
2 May, 2021
January 30, 2021
We talk about the Holy Spirit, we pray for the Holy Spirit, we focus on the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but do we really know who or what the Holy Spirit is? Understand this. There is danger in knowing the Holy Spirit’s work but not knowing the Holy Spirit. Remember in the last days according to Matthew 7:22,23 after individuals saw and even practiced the casting out of demons, prophesying, and performing many miracles. Jesus said, “I never knew you.” Really, if we do not know who the Holy Spirit, is how can we recognize His work? Three questions we need to answer. First question, is the Holy Spirit God? In Acts 5 Peter confronts Ananias and asks why he had lied “to the Holy Spirit.” Then Peter declares “You have not lied to men, but to God.” Second question, is the Holy Spirit a person in the Godhead? In Matthew 28:9, we find in the Great Commission saying we must be baptized “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” The formula highlights a single name, not three different ones, making each and all of them of the same substance or nature as the others. 2 Corinthians 13:14 reveals the same triune God: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” Third, what is the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the Godhead? In John 15:26 it reads, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me.” Just as the Son reveals the Father’s love and character, and just as the Son chooses not to take His own initiative but yields such prerogative to the Father (see John 5:30; 6:38), so does the Spirit in relationship to the Son. Conclusion: The Holy Spirit is God, the Holy Spirit is a person of the Godhead, and the relationship between the Godhead is One of serving, loving, and honoring.
We talk about the Holy Spirit, we pray for the Holy Spirit, we focus on the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but do we really know who or what the Holy Spirit is? Understand this. There is danger in knowing the Holy Spirit’s work but not knowing the Holy Spirit. Remember in the last days according to Matthew 7:22,23 after individuals saw and even practiced the casting out of demons, prophesying, and performing many miracles. Jesus said, “I never knew you.” Really, if we do not know who the Holy Spirit, is how can we recognize His work? Three questions we need to answer. First question, is the Holy Spirit God? In Acts 5 Peter confronts Ananias and asks why he had lied “to the Holy Spirit.” Then Peter declares “You have not lied to men, but to God.” Second question, is the Holy Spirit a person in the Godhead? In Matthew 28:9, we find in the Great Commission saying we must be baptized “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” The formula highlights a single name, not three different ones, making each and all of them of the same substance or nature as the others. 2 Corinthians 13:14 reveals the same triune God: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” Third, what is the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the Godhead? In John 15:26 it reads, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me.” Just as the Son reveals the Father’s love and character, and just as the Son chooses not to take His own initiative but yields such prerogative to the Father (see John 5:30; 6:38), so does the Spirit in relationship to the Son. Conclusion: The Holy Spirit is God, the Holy Spirit is a person of the Godhead, and the relationship between the Godhead is One of serving, loving, and honoring.
