Over the past few weeks I’ve shared with you how I
believe that this is “The Year of the Holy Spirit”
I believe God is stirring us to spend this year
emphasizing the Holy Spirit – Who He is, What He does
and our need to continually lean in on Him and allow
Him to direct our lives, our church, our services – to
truly allow Him to be “in charge” of everything.
Over the coming months we will look at things like
the gifts of the Spirit
the fruit of the Spirit
the baptism in the Holy Spirit
But first we need to ask Who is the Holy Spirit?
Who He Is! So the title of my message is “Who Is
the Holy Spirit?”
If I was with you as your guest at a party, and we
encountered someone I didn’t know, you would want to
introduce me. Maybe you would say something like,
“This is Tommy McLaurin.”
At that moment the person would know my name,
but they still wouldn’t know who I was. If they chose
to Google that name, maybe go to “Linked in” they
would find literally dozens of Tommy/Thomas
McLaurins!
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Knowing that you would go on to tell, not just my
name, but maybe a “title” I carry, or some attribute
about me…
“This is Tommy McLaurin, he is a good friend. He is
the Pastor of SpiritLife Church (ok, now we’re getting
somewhere). He is married to Carol (husband) and
they have two daughters (father) and 4 grandchildren
(grandfather). Tommy grew up in NC but has lived in
Tulsa the past 23 years. He’s my “cowboy pastor.”
Now they are starting to get a better
picture/understanding of who I am.
I think sometimes we haven’t done a very good job
introducing people to the Holy Spirit.
We know who God is. Creator, Almighty
We know who Jesus is. God in the flesh. Lived a
perfect life. Healed sick, raised dead, cast out
demons; died on cross and rose again. He is our
Savior.
But who (or what) is the Holy Spirit. If all we know
Him by is a name, then we don’t really know Him
that well, ….
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So today, please allow me to introduce you to the
Holy Spirit! And let me begin by saying…
I. The Holy Spirit is a Person
The first thing we need to understand is that the Holy
Spirit is not an impersonal force that acts upon our
lives, like the force in Star Wars.
A. There are a number or reasons people think of
God as a person, Jesus as a person, but the Holy
Spirit is just some impersonal force…
1. Many of the titles or names given to the Holy
Spirit within the Scriptures might make Him sound
like a part of, but not distinct from, the Father or
Jesus. These are names like the “Spirit of Christ.”
the “Spirit of God,” the “Spirit of the Lord,” or
even in the song we sing “Spirit of the Living
God.”
These give the impression that that Holy Spirit is a
spiritual manifestation or representation of God, but
not a real person…, kind of like the “Spirit of
Christmas” which isn’t a person, but a feeling or an
idea..
We see God as the Father and the Son (persons), but
not the Holy Spirit.
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2. Another reason the Holy Spirit is not seen as a
person is how He is represented in the Bible as
things like breath, wind, fire, oil, water, and a
dove. But these are simply symbols explaining the
work of the Holy Spirit.
It’s kind of like when Jesus said that He is the door or
gate of the sheep (John 10:7) or bread of life. Jesus
isn’t saying that He literally is a door of wood, or a gate
of iron. or a “pastry”. It is symbolic language.
It is in this same way that we need to look at these
symbols of the Holy Spirit to see what they mean, and
how through these symbols He is working in our midst.
3. A third reason people might not consider the
personhood of the Holy Spirit, and that is when we
call Him the Holy Ghost. Unfortunately, today this
conjures up in people’s minds a shadowy
aberration, but not a person.
I once had someone tell me there is a difference in the
Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost. But there is not. The
Greek is Hagios Pneuma. Hagias = Holy; Pneuma =
breath, wind, spirit, ghost
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B. But when we further examine what the Bible says
about the coming of the Holy Spirit, we see that
the Holy Spirit is a person, and that there is a
distinct difference between Him and the Father
and the Son.
Jesus said, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give
you another Helper, that He may abide with you
forever, the Spirit of truth.” (John 14:16-17a NKJV)
That word “another,” here in the Greek language,
means someone else who is like the person who is doing
the sending, which Jesus says that not only does the
Father send, but He also sends the Holy Spirit (John
16:7). So the Holy Spirit is a person like Jesus, and is
distinct from both the Father and Jesus.
C. And so the Holy Spirit is not an “it,” or a “force,”.
He is a person in the same way that both the
Father and the Son are persons.
We see this about the Holy Spirit in several ways.
1. Masculine Pronoun
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“I will pray the Father, and He will give you another
Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit
of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it
neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him,
for He dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16-
17 NKJV)
2. Personal Activities
We also see the personhood of the Holy Spirit through
some of the His personal activities, like
teaching, bearing witness, interceding,
searching, distributing, forbidding, speaking,
evaluating, being grieved, and bringing comfort and
counsel, along with advocating on our behalf.
3. Personal Relationship
But what really makes this relationship with the
Holy Spirit personal is what Jesus said in John
14:17. “But you know Him, for He dwells with you
and will be in you.”
It doesn’t get more personal than that! What makes this
relationship so personal? It’s because the Holy Spirit not
only dwells with us, but within us as well.
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But it is in the name that Jesus gives to the Holy
Spirit that we see this personal activity the
greatest. It is when Jesus called Him the “Helper,”
or what the King James Version calls Him, and that
is, “The Comforter.”
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring
to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
(John 14:26 NKJV)
This word in the Greek language is “parakletos,” which
means to call to one’s side, to bring aid and help.
And so what we see from these examples is that the
Holy Spirit is very personable, and not some
impersonal force. The Holy Spirit cares for us and
wants to help us become everything that we were
meant to be.
4. Personality
We also see the personhood of the Holy Spirit in the
different aspects of His personality.
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a. He possesses a mind and knows.
“Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind
of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the
saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:27
NKJV)
b. He possesses a will.
“But one and the same Spirit works all these things,
distributing to each one individually as He wills.” (1
Corinthians 12:11 NKJV)
c. He possesses emotions, and can be grieved and
insulted.
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom
you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
(Ephesians 4:30 NKJV)
“Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose,
will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son
of God underfoot, counted the blood of the
covenant by which he was sanctified a common
thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews
10:29 NKJV)
An impersonal force can neither be grieved or
insulted, only a person.
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And one of the greatest emotions that a person
possesses, is love, and this is what the Holy Spirit
provides in the fruit that He gives.
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23a NKJV)
And so while we’ve established that the Holy Spirit is a
person, is He also God?
II. The Holy Spirit Is God
A. The Trinity of God
To understand the deity of the Holy Spirit we must
start with the doctrine of the Trinity.
The doctrine of the Trinity says that God is one
and yet eternally exists in three persons.
Now, there are many who have a hard time wrapping
their head around this doctrine, and I understand that.
How can 1 be 3 or 3 be 1? We try to use illustrations
such as 3 sides to 1 triangle, or an egg made up of
shell, white and yoke. My favorite is H20… solid, liquid
and gas is ice, water and steam. 3 different forms of
the same thing. But ultimately we have to admit that
we can fit an infinite God into our finite minds…
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“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your
ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are
higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your
ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah
55:8-9).
So according to Scripture, the Holy Spirit is God, and
God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 3 in 1
B. The Unity of God
The Bible makes it clear that God is Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, there is only one God.
This oneness is seen in in “ The Shema,” which is
recited every Sabbath: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our
God, the Lord is one!” (Deuteronomy 6:4 NKJV)
C. The Plurality of God
Yet, within this declaration of God’s oneness we
see the plurality of the one God.
1. It is first seen in the Hebrew word used for “one.”
It is the Hebrew word, “echad.”
There are two words in the Hebrew language for the
word “one.” They are “echad,” and “yahid.”
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“Yahid” means absolute oneness or singleness,
leaving no room for any meaning other than one and
one alone.
But “echad” brings with it the idea of many that
make up one, or a composite unity.
There are several instances seen within the Bible.
One example is God’s plan for marriages where the
husband and wife will be one, “echad,” flesh
(Genesis 2:24). Here are two distinct individuals
comprising a unity of one in marriage.
2. This plurality in oneness is also seen in the plural
language used for God, like when the Lord
recounts His creation of humanity.
“Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our
likeness.” (Genesis 1:26a NKJV) This is plural language
[Gen 1:1-2 NKJV] 1 In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without
form, and void; and darkness [was] on the face of
the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over
the face of the waters. (Here we see God the Father
and God the Spirit… aha.. but where is Jesus, the
Son? He was there too!)
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[John 1:1-3 KJV] 1 In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All
things were made by him; and without him was
not anything made that was made.
And so from our very first introduction of God, in the
creation story, we understand that God exists in three
persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
D. The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the
Godhead
The Godhead being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is
brought out in the Apostle John’s first letter.
“For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the
Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three
are one” (1 John 5:7).
We’ve already seen that Jesus is the Word!
The Godhead being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is also
seen in the Great Commission given by Jesus.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19 NKJV)
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Now, what many people miss when giving this as a
proof text of the Trinity, or one God in three persons, is
that Jesus didn’t say to baptize in the “names of,” or
the plural, which would mean that they are each
separate and distinct and not one. Instead Jesus said,
“In the name of,” or the singular. Therefore, the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one.
E. The Holy Spirit is God
There are two verses when it comes to declaring the
Holy Spirit as being fully God.
1. The first is when Peter assesses the actions of two
church members, Ananias and Sapphira, who lied
about a piece of property they sold and declared
they had given the whole amount to the church.
“Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit
and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?
… You have not lied to men but to God.” (Acts 5:3-4
NKJV)
2. The second place is found in two verses found in 1
Corinthians. The first talks about our bodies being
God’s holy temple (1 Corinthians 3:16), and then
in the other, it says that our bodies are temples of
the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19).
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3. We also see the Three Main Attributes of God
being attributed to the Holy Spirit.
Omnipresent: everywhere present
“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee
from Your presence?” (Psalm 139:7)
Omnipotence: all powerful
“… ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says
the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). Also, “endued with
power”
Omniscience: all knowing
“But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.
For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things
of God … no one knows the things of God except the
Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10-11).
4. The Economy of the Godhead – their distinct roles
or functions..
Let me summarize an example of the Economy of the
Godhead in our redemption.
It was God the Father who planned and sent His
Son, Jesus, to accomplish our salvation.
Jesus then came and accomplished what the Father
had planned through His death and resurrection.
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And then it was the Holy Spirit who sealed the deal.
“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of
truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also,
having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of
promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession, to the
praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14).
Conclusion: Musicians Come
Now, there is so much more,
But it all begins here answering the question Who is the
Holy Spirit?
First the Holy Spirit is a person with a mind, will, and
emotions, and not some impersonal force of God, which
is why we need to be careful not to grieve, insult, or
blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
Then we need to understand that the Holy Spirit is
God, the third person of the Godhead, which is why it is
so important for us to know Him, in the same way we
know the Father and Jesus Christ.
And the reason is because of what Jesus said about
who He is, the “Comforter,” and “Helper,” the
“paraklete,” the one who comes along side of us and
brings aid, help, and comfort.