The Christian Handbook - God the Holy Spirit

We have been in a series called the Christian Handbook, The Christian Handbook,

and we're going through the fundamentals of the Christian faith. What do Christians believe

and what do Christians do or orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Our beliefs drive our actions

or they drive our behavior. So that's what we're doing in this whole series.

We're going back and looking at what Christians believe and how that should,

how that should inform what Christians do or what we are to do. And

the last couple weeks we've looked at God the Father, and we've looked at

God the Son who is here For those if you missed them, their online

good a lot of you made it, that's great, but they are online

in case you missed it. But this week we're going to finish out talking

about the Trinity by talking about God the Holy Spirit, the third person of

the Trinity. We believe in one God eternally existing in three persons, Father's

Son, and Holy Spirit. So today's message is just titled God the Holy

Spirit because that's what we're talking about, God the Holy Spirit. Today.

I want to talk about two main things. The first thing we want to

talk about is who is the Holy Spirit? Who is the Holy Spirit?

Who is this third person of the Trinitarian Godhead? And that also means we're

gonna spend a little bit of talking time talking about who the Holy Spirit is

not. And the second piece that we're going to talk about today is why

did God send his Holy Spirit to us? It sound like a plan,

Gosh. I hope so, because that's what we're talking about today. But

let's pray before we get any further. God, we thank you for your

word. God. We thank you for this time to stop, take a

break from our week and get our minds fixed on you and what you've What

are you taught us in scripture? And so God, as we look at

you the Holy Spirit today, I pray that you open up our minds to

understand your scripture of God and that you seal it in our hearts. And

we're just so grateful for the opportunity and the freedom to do so. We

thank you for all this in Jesus name. Everybody said, Amen, Okay,

let's start with the first big question of the day. Who is God

the Holy Spirit? Who is God the Holy Spirit? And I've said it

like four times, He's a third person of the Trinity. The third person

at the Trinity, a divine person who is one with the Father and one

with the Son. He's eternally existing. And sometimes I think we can potentially

get caught up on this, the fact that the Holy Spirit is a person.

That word person's right. It sounds like we're potentially taking the deity away

or the holiness away from who God the Holy Spirit is. But when scripture

refers to the Holy Spirit, or every time that scripture references the Holy Spirit,

always uses terms that are assigned to or associate with a personhood. Okay,

as a person. Let's look at one really easy example that we'll find

in First Corinthians twelve. All these are the work of one and the same

spirit, and he distributes them to each one just as he determines. Now,

this is speaking about the spiritual gifts, right, And we'll read this

a little bit more of this scripture later. But it's speaking of the spiritual

gifts. But what does it say about the Holy Spirit says that he distributes

the gifts as he just as he determines. Okay, he the Bible calls

the Holy Spirit. He not an it. It's not an it to he

is a he and this verse also shows us a really important thing that the

Holy Spirit has a will because he distributes them just as he determines. He

has thoughts, he makes plans, he makes decisions, and just to clarify

some things a little bit further, since the Holy Spirit is a person,

that means he is not a power, a spiritual force, or just an

influence in the world. Because he's a person. Because he is called the

Holy Spirit. And if you raise old school a Holy Ghost, anyone raises

the Holy Ghost, sometimes it makes us think that that he's just some mystical

floating energy out there that if you figure out how to tap into him,

he can do these magical powers and magical things for you. Because it's his

Holy Spirit. Sometimes our brains can maybe go into that into that direction,

or maybe even worse that having that kind of thinking, you can lead people

to think that God is like this superpower or the Holy Spirit is a superpower

that you can just figure out how to, I don't know, use your

own advantage to do these supernatural things, usually on a whim for your own

desires, right, But no, God, the Holy Spirit is a person.

He's one of the persons of the Trinity. And if we think that

we can just wave the Holy Spirit around like a wand I think we need

to really reshape our understanding of who he is. The Holy Spirit is not

an object to be used. It's a person. It's like, I'm not

gonna grab Duncan and just use him for whatever I want. That would be

weird, and I'd be really strong if I just grabbed by the leg and

just use him as a pointer for things. Right. I can't do that.

You wouldn't do that with God the Holy Spirit because he's a person.

If your understanding was that he's a thing to be used to get to your

own ends, then you might attempt to, right, but that's not who

he is. He's not an object to be used. He's not a magic

spell to be cast. For all my fellow nerds out there, Yeah,

you get to know me, you'll realize how deep my geek really is.

God is, or the Holy Spirit, he's the third person of the eternal

Shryune God. And we actually get a beautiful picture of all three persons of

God in the Baptism of Jesus, that is in Luke chapter three. So

let's look at Luke chapter three when all the people were being baptized. Jesus

was baptized too, and as he was praying, heaven was opened and the

Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily formed like a dove, and a voice

came from heaven. You are my son, whom I love. With you,

I am well pleased. So we see the first person referenced here as

Jesus was baptized. So there's God, the Son Jesus. Heaven was opened,

and who came down and bodily formed like a dove, the Holy Spirit.

There's a second part of the trinity. And then heavens were opened up

and a voice came out. Voice came from heaven, You are my son.

Well, who would be saying you are my son the Father? That's

God the Father. So we see a picture of all three pieces father son,

or all three persons, father son and Holy Spirit all at the same

time. And this shows us one really cool thing that all three persons are

distinct. I'm trying not to preach a message on trinity, but it's helpful

to understand who the Holy Spirit is when we rehash some of this stuff.

But all three persons are distinct, but at the same time, it's God.

There is only one God. We believe in one God eternally existing in

three persons. Because Christians are monotheistic, it means one God, not polytheistic,

not all the other theistics that are out there, which there's a lot

of them, monotheistic. And this leads us to a very important reminder,

and I think probably this most simple answer to our question, who is the

Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is God.

And sometimes I think we forget that. We forget It's easy to remember God,

the Father is God. He's like, Okay, that just makes sense.

And I think we got God, the Son Jesus. We got that

one down, that Jesus is God in the flesh. But I think there's

times when we forget the Holy Spirit is equally God, not less than the

Father or less than the Son, but equal to because he is God.

And to drive this point home, we're going to go to the Book of

Acts chapter five and read a few verses. Now, a man named Annanias,

together with his wife's sapphire him, also sold a piece of property with

his wife's full knowledge. He kept back part of the money for himself,

but brought the rest and put it at the apostle's feet. Then Peter said,

Annonius, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you

have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money

you receive for the land. Didn't it belong to you before it was sold?

And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What

made you think of doing such a thing. You have not lied just to

human beings, but to God. So what is Peter saying to annonis he's

saying, you lied to the Holy Spirit. And then right there at the

end of the verse four, you didn't just lie to human beings, but

you lied to God. So Peter is confirming here that the Holy Spirit is

God. The Holy Spirit is God. And if you keep reading anonis falls

over dead and the same thing happens to your wife a few hours later.

Right, but before you start freaking out about, oh my gosh, I

sold something and didn't give everything to the Lord, let's understand this in the

context of what's going on here, that this is when the early Church had

just started, and from time to time people would sell property or they'd sell

houses, and they bring all the money to the apostles and the reason they

would do this because they're trying to fulfill and meet all the needs of all

of the Lord's people. And one of the cool things it says there was

no needy person among them. That's amazing to me. But here Annonize and

Saphire, you see them lying. But what is what are they lying about?

So what are they lying about? And I think a safe assumption is

that they were trying to give the appearance of true, real generosity, just

like everybody else was doing in the ear in the early Church, but secretly

they were being greedy and wanting to keep stuff for themselves so to have the

appearance of generosity, but secretly being greedy by keeping they wanted to look.

It's kind of like what the Pharisees were doing, right, they would do

everything. Jesus would chastise them because they were doing things to be seen by

others. Right, So Anoni since virus selling a property, being like,

hey, if we bring some money and put it at the feet, will

look just like we're being as generous as everybody else. But then we can

also keep someone the side. So I guess the moral of the stories if

you feel the Lord telling you to sell something and give it the poor,

you probably shouldn't be greedy and keep any of it. Obedience is always best,

right Amen? All right, we're like way off track. Let's get

back on track here. But the whole point of that, like reading that

scripture and some of this little rabbit trail, is to just remind us that

the Holy Spirit is God. And we have already said it before. But

the Holy Spirit, excuse me, because the Holy Spirit is God. That

also means this, the Holy Spirit is eternal. Because God is eternal,

the Holy Spirit is eternal, and that means forever, forever, past,

to forever, future, forever, eternal, which is a really hard thing

I think for me to wrap my all I'm hopefully more than just me.

It's hard to wrap your mind around forever because we think of everything in time.

Everything has a beginning, everything has an end. But eternal past,

eternity, past, eternity, future. That's God. The Holy Spirit is

God. He's eternal as well, before all things and after all things,

and God the Holy Spirit was around when all things were created in the beginning.

What does the second verse of the entire Bible say. Let's go look

now, the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of

the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. The

Spirit of God was hovering over the waters when the earth was formless and empty.

He was there. God the Holy Spirit was there in the beginning when

everything was created, just like God the Father and just like God the Son.

We talked about that last week, and he has been here ever since.

And this leads me to another truth about the Holy Spirit. The Holy

Spirit works in people to accomplish his purposes. And this is really important because

a lot of times we are like, oh, the Holy Spirit works in

people to accomplish our purposes. No. No, the Holy Spirit is a

person. He's not a magic wand to be waved around. He has purposes

and he works in his people to accomplish his purposes. God the Holy Spirit

is the one who empowers people in special ways to do the things that God

has planned. And this is going to dip into a little bit of why

God sent the Holy Spirit. But we're going to go into that more specifically

in a little bit. But let's look at some examples from the Old Testament.

Starting in Judges three. We're bouncing all over the Bible today, So

just buckle up. And if you don't have a Bible. I haven't said

this in a while. We have bibles on the back table. Take one,

keep it. It's our gift for you. We want you to have

the Bible. Okay. Judges three, starting in verse seven, the Israelites

did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They forgot the Lord, their

god, and serve the bails and the Sharis. Good job, Israel,

just kidding, We do this all the time. The anger of the Lord

burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Kushan Risha thame

King of Aram. There's gonna be a lot of these, so just get

ready, buckle up. It is gonna be great King of Aram, the

Harem to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. But when they cried

out to the Lord. Because that's what we do. As what the Israelites

did, that's what we do. We stop falling God hard times come.

We turned back to the Lord. Right, it's just this thing that happens.

He raised up for them a deliverer, ath Niel. That's a guess

on how to say that, but it sounds right. Athnael's son of Kannaz,

Caleb's younger brother who saved them. The spirit of the Lord came on

him. Okay, so now we get to see the Holy Spirit at work,

so that he became Israel's judge and went to war. The Lord gave

Kushan risha Faim, king of Aram, into the hands of Athanael, who

overpowered him. So the land had peace for forty years until Athanael's son of

Kannaz died. So why did we just read all of that. It's because

the spirit of the Lord came upon Athanael and he became the judge, the

one to judge and to fight for Israel. And this happened for all of

the many judges in scripture, the judges of the people of Israel. But

it was God himself, because the spirit of the Lord came upon Athanael,

who is leading the judges over Israel. The spirit of God or the Spirit

of God or the Holy Spirit was the one who made Authniel the judge.

And he also made him successful because we see forty years of peace. He's

the one who brought success to what he called Athanael to do, or what

he purposed for Authniel to do. But it wasn't just leadership skills that the

Holy Spirit would work in people. Let's take a look in Exodus chapter thirty

one. Then the Lord said to Moses. See, so this is the

Lord talking to Moses. Okay, it's important, because we're gonna reference something

regarding that in a little bit. See, I have chosen here we go

again, Basileel, son of Yuri, the son of her of the tribe

of Judah. And I have filled him with the spirit of God, with

wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, and with all kinds of skills to

make artistic designs, for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut

and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds

of crafts. Moreover, I've appointed a holy Ab. I go, oh,

holy Ab. The stars are Brianley shining. Every time I read it,

I can't stop it, the son of a Hassimak of the tribe of

Dan. To help him. Also, I have given ability to all the

skilled workers to make everything I've commanded you. Okay, so we are looking

at baslel Besil. Yeah, Besil being filled with the spirit of God for

the specific purpose of making things that God commanded him to make. And if

you keep reading, it's for the tabernacle, which was the meeting place of

the Lord. He was given wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and all kinds

of skills worked with, working with gold, silver, bronze, stone,

and wood. It basically making him like a master craftsman and all things that

seemed very very practical, but it's for God's purposes. And then you got

a little buddy named a Holy Ab for Christmas. Maybe it's just Christmas buddy,

but he was specifically gifted for what to artistically make things. It wasn't

just the Holy Spirit, wasn't just gifting people to lead and to judge,

but also in things that we might think are completely normal, everyday natural things,

because you could learn how to be a craftsman. Right, But this

is cool, because this is the spirit of God made him a master craftsman

in all this and Ojulab And then I want to flip a couple of pages

over in your Bible too, where Moses tells the people of Israel what God

said to him. So let's look at what he says in Exodus thirty five.

Okay, so first we saw the Lord said to Moses. Now we

see then Moses said to the Israelites. So announce Moses speaking to the people.

See, the Lord has chosen Basileel, son of Yuri, the son

of her of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the

Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, and with

all kinds of skills to make artistic designs, for work in gold, silver

and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and

to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. And He has given both him

and a holy Abs son of at A Hissomack of the tribe of Dan,

the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skills, with skill,

to do all kinds of work, as engravers, designers, embroiderers in

blue, purple and scarlet, yarn and fine linen, and weavers, all

of them skilled, excuse me, all of them skilled workers and designers.

So we see now. First God speaks to Moses, and Moses speaks to

the people. And God also by the Holy Spirit gave by him. The

Holy Spirit gave him the ability to teach others in these crafting skills. So

all my teachers, can I get an amen? I know there's one in

here, thanks honey. So they were gifted by the Lord to teach.

But I want you to notice here, what did Moses say to the people.

What did he say to them? He told them exactly what God told

him to say. And we don't have the time to We don't have time

really to get into a message on the sufficiency of God's word and the complete

unnecessariness. Yes that's a word, because I looked it up. The complete

unnecessariness for us to add or remove anything from what God has said sufficient.

God's word is sufficient. So what's the point of all this. I'm just

gonna say, good job, Moses. God said something, and you just

repeat of what God said, and that's what we should do. But God

didn't only speak to his people. He also spoke through his people. He

spoke through his people. Let's look at Second Samuel, chapter twenty three.

These are the last words of David, the inspired utterances of David's Son of

Jesse. And this word inspired is really important. We're not going to break

it down right now. Just put that in your back pocket. The inspired

utterances of David's Son of Jesse, the utterances of the man exalted by the

Most High, the man anointed by the God of Jacob, the hero of

Israel Songs, which is a really cool title for David. The Spirit of

the Lord spoke through me. His word was on my tongue. And then

he goes on to talk more. But I really want to focus in on

that second verse. There, the Spirit of the Lord spoke through me,

His word was on my tongue. Here we see David is acknowledging that the

Spirit of the Lord was speaking through him. There's actually speaking through him.

God, through his Spirit, chose to speak through David. He also spoke

through all of his prophets throughout the Old Testament. So if you read any

of the prophets, and there's a lot of them in scripture, all of

them were being spoken through spoken by God through them. And the whole reason

that we wanted to but I wanted to go through kind of all these passages

and read them all is to see how that the Holy Spirit has been active

since the beginning creation of time, and he continues to be active even today.

And there is an Old Testament speaking about the coming Holy Spirit kind of

talking about how he would interact with us even further forward than what we just

read, but even now today and that well, here's my next slide.

I guess the Holy Spirit is the one God promised to send to his people.

It's kind of the crux of the Old Testament prophecy that the Holy Spirit

is the one that God promised to send to his people. It wasn't,

or at least it shouldn't have been a surprise as the Holy Spirit was showing

up because they've heard these prophecies. The children of Israel had heard these prophecies

before. God had told everyone he was going to send his spirit. Let's

look at Ezekiel Chapter thirty six. Is this the most Old Testament you guys

have read in a while? The Old Testament is so good. Chapter thirty

six, starting verse twenty six. I will give you a new heart and

put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of

stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit

in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my

laws. I love this. This is an awesome promise. No longer a

heart of stone will we get a heart of flesh. God's spirit will be

in us. He will put his spirit in us, and we will,

and he will move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my

laws. Have you read through Psalm one nineteen so I think one hundred and

seventy six verses long. Everyone's like, oh, psalms are really short,

not that one. And it's a whole love letter to God's law. It's

incredible. That's the kind of heart that gets put in us right, this

desire to love and follow the Lord's commands. We'll give you a new heart,

new spirit. I will put my spirit in you. That's what God's

promising. Let's look in Joel chapter two, and afterward, I will pour

out my spirit on all people, what people, all people. Your sons

and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream, dream, your young

men will see visions, even on my servants, both men and women.

I will pour out my spirit in those days. This is prophetic language about

God pouring out a spirit onto his people, all of his people. And

even though the early Christians had these prophecies, they still struggle and thought that

that the Holy Spirit and God was only for the Jews. He's still struggled

with that, but no, it's for people of all nations, all tribes,

and all tongues. Right, So we read stuff in scripture and then

we get to learn the truth from it. And then we read all of

Scripture and say, how does that fit in the full context of the book?

Right, because there's lots of verses that reference this stuff, and we

get to see that, No, the Holy Spirit is for people groups from

all nations, tribes, and tongues, because all who call in the name

of the Lord are saved, and all who are saved receive the Holy Spirit.

So we see God promising to send his Holy Spirit back in the Old

Testament. So now let's look at what Jesus said in the New Testament about

the Holy Spirit. We're gonna go to John sixteen and I this is I

meant to change this, but forgot after Erry typed it out. I know,

go you know spirit, but it's up there. So I'm going to

point it out. But very truly, I tell you, it is for

your good that I'm going. This is Jesus talking to his disciples. It's

very good that I'm going away. Unless I go away, the advocate will

not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to

you. I know, go you know spirit, it makes sense, right,

But who is the capital a advocate? Who is that? That's God,

the Holy Spirit, That's who the capital a advocate is. And we

can even look at what Jesus said after he resurrects from the dead in Luke

twenty four. He said to them, this is what I told you while

I was still with you. He's like, come on, guys, everything

must be fulfilled that has written about me in the Law of Moses, the

Prophets, and the Psalms. Then my favorite, one of my all time

favorite verses. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures.

That should be a prayer every single time we open our Bible. God opened

my mind to understand the script This is what I pray. I'm gonna let

you in my little Bible time prayer. I say, God, let the

words jump off this page into my heart, that I can hide your word

my heart that I might not sin against you. That's Psalm one nineteen eleven.

And I pray that you open my mind to understand your scripture. Like

he's the one who does that. Right here, Jesus say it. Then

he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures, and that's what we

want, and that's what we need. He told them, this is what

is written the Messiah. Next slide, will suffer and rise from the dead,

rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for forgiveness of

sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem, which

if your history buff that's exactly what happened. You are witnesses of these things.

I am going to send you what my father has promised, but stay

in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high. Jesus

reminded them of what they what he already told him several times before, like

it was recorded in was that mark. Three times he told him he was

going to die and raise. He's like, guys, I'm gonna I'm gonna

die, I'm gonna raise, basically the Gospel message. That's what he's reminding

him of. But then he mentions that he is going to send them what

God the Father promised. And what did God the Father promise to send them?

His Holy Spirit promised to send his Holy Spirit. And Jesus reminds them

one more time before he ascends into heaven. In the beginning of the Book

of Acts, his Acts one six. Then he gathered. Then they gathered

around him and asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to

restore the kingdom to Israel. We don't have time. He said to them.

It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has

set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit

comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all

Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Jesus reminding them right

before he ascends into heaven to be the right hand of the Father, that

he's going to send the Holy Spirit to them, because God promised to dwell

among and within his people. God promised that, and in the Old Testament

his people built physical temples for the presence of the Lord right to meet with

God. But what does first Corinthian sixteen tell us that our bodies are a

temple of the Holy Spirit. Right, So it's no, it's not this

building that the Lord would dwell in. But our bodies are temples of the

Holy Spirit. That God lives within us. He lives lives within us.

And Stephen says in Acts seven that the Most Height does not live in houses

made by human hands. Why can he confidently say that because God dwells within

us. He lives in and among his people. God's greatest promise to us

is that he will dwell among his people. That is one of his greatest

promises. I mean, salvation is pretty awesome, but he'll dwell among his

people. He is literally God among us. And while we wait for that

to be fully realized, we get to experience and enjoy Him living within us.

That God, the Holy Spirit lives in every single person who has put

faith in Jesus Christ. And now we get a transition to the next main

part of the message. Why did God send the Holy Spirit to us?

Why did God send the Holy Spirit to us? It's actually really hard to

talk about who the Holy Spirit is without talking a little bit about why he

is here. But I want to talk about the moment where he showed up

in the way that God promised on the day of Pentecost, and then we'll

a little bit more specific about why he is here. But let's look at

Acts chapter two. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together

in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came

from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what

seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of

them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak

in other tongues or languages as the Spirit enabled them. This is on the

day of Pentecost. This is like the beginning of Pentecost, for the Holy

Spirit shows up and in dwells believers the way that God had intended and purposed.

And just a quick reminder, just because this is the day of Pentecost,

the Holy Spirit shown up. That's not when he didn't. It wasn't

that he didn't exist before, right, We already talked about him being there

at the beginning of creation. He's been there ever since. But this is

when he interacted in a completely different way with believers. He shows up,

fills the believers, and they begin speaking in other languages as the Spirit enabled

them. And people from literally everywhere are there when it happens, because the

Bible says from every nation under heaven, if you keep reading this, that's

where people are all from. And they all hear the disciples declaring the wonders

of God in their own language. That's pretty miraculous for everyone to be hearing.

It's like all of us to start praising the Lord and speaking of his

wonders. And we have a bunch of people from all these different language speaking

countries and they just hear us declaring the wonders of God in their own language.

That's amazing because they're all from all the people here were from Galilee.

They didn't speak at a bunch of languages. And then Peter stands up and

has to explain to everybody what the heck is going on. So let's look

at Acts two fourteen. Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his

voice and addressed the crowd, fellow Jews and all of you who live in

Jerusalem, let me explain this to you. Listen carefully to what I say.

These people are not drunk as you suppose. It's only nine in the

morning. It's five o'clock somewhere. Just kidding, it's only nine o'clock in

the morning. No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel,

and we're about to read what we just read, and Joel in the last

Days God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your

sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, your old

men will dream dreams, even on my servants, both men and women.

I will pour out my spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

I will show you wonders in the heavens above, and signs on the earth

below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned

to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the Great, of

the Great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls them the

name of the Lord will be saved. Amen. They're getting to see this

prophecy from Joel in action right then. So Peter just stands up and explains

it to him, this extremely add and crazy thing that's happening, and then

he continues to give him after that, he gives him a little history lesson

about what just happened to Jesus and what was prophesied through David, and then

he hits him with this in verse thirty six. Therefore, let all Israel

be assured of this. God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both

Lord and Messiah. The people. When the people heard this, they were

cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers,

what shall we do. Peter replied, repent and be baptized, every one

of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins,

and you will what receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise

is for you and your children, and for all who are far off.

Praise God that the far off were included in this, for all whom the

Lord our God will call. With many other words, he warned them,

and he pleaded with them, save yourselves from this corrupt generation. Those who

accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number

that day. It's a lot of Christians, so Peter tells them. The

reason you are hearing everyone in your own language, the reason you're hearing them

all declare the wonders of God. The reason you were seeing these amazing things

happen, amazing things happen is to show you that what we're saying is true.

What we are saying is true, and what we were saying is that

Jesus is both Lord and Messiah. Jesus is God in the flesh. Everyone

who believes this message received the Holy Spirit. And how do we know that

they believed because they repented and were baptized. They did what they said because

belief affects our behavior. Our belief drives our actions. And when we believe,

we receive God's promised Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our proof that

we are saved. Ephesians one and fourteen tells us that our guarantee, our

seal that we are God's possession is the Holy Spirit. That's our guarantee that

we are his, is that we have His Holy Spirit living in us.

And the events that happened on the day of Pentecost also happened a few other

times in the book of Acts. I'm just gonna tell you about instead of

going there, But it was Paul and Ephesus, Peter among the gentiles in

Cesarea, and Peter and John when they're in Samaria. That's from Acts eight,

ten and nineteen, so i'd encourage you to read them. These same

types of signs happened to the same types of fulfillment of the prophecy and Joel

were happening in these different areas. And this is all the show that salvation

is not just for the Jews, it's also for the half Jews and the

Gentiles half Jews of the Samaritans. There was a lot of a big rift

between Jewish people and the Samaritans because Samaritans were half blood Jews. But the

fact that these three people groups were included in this fulfillment of Joel's the prophecy,

and Joel is showing you that no salvation is for literally all groups of

people on planet Earth. So no one can claim that it's only for us.

Not a single person could argue that salvation is only ours. No,

because it happened to all these different groups. Okay, now we covered when

the Holy Spirit came in the day of Pentecost in the prop side way.

So let's finally talk about why God sent his Holy Spirit to dwell believers today.

And we're gonna go to John chapter fourteen. If you love me,

keep my commands, period as Jesus speaking. If you love me, keep

my commands, and I will ask the Father and he will give you another

advocate to help you and be with you forever. The Spirit of Truth,

the Word cannot accept or excuse me, the world cannot accept him because it.

Neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he

lives within you, and he will be in you. Jesus said that he

will ask the Father to send another advocate, So that means that next slide,

the Holy Spirit is our advocate. The Holy Spirit is our advocate.

An advocate is a person who pleads on someone else's bath. This is getting

into like law talk. Is the Holy Spirit who pleads on our behalf.

Because we who've been guilty of sin since birth, are now represented by someone

who complete our case that we are now forgiven and guiltless because of what,

because of what Jesus did, The Holy Spirit is our advocate, standing in

between us and judgment and this other advocate. The Holy Spirit will be with

us forever. Scripture just said forever we get the Holy Spirit with us,

and just a handful of verses later in John fourteen twenty five, all this

I've spoken while still with you. But the advocate, the Holy Spirit.

Right, if there ever was a wonder, the advocate, the Holy Spirit.

There's our answer, whom the Father will send in my name, will

teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

This is a really, I think, a really cool and extremely important

thing that the Holy Spirit does in our lives. Next line, the Holy

Spirit teaches us and reminds us of Jesus teachings. That's huge and amazing because

I forget things all the time. But the Holy Spirit teaches us and reminds

us of Jesus teachings. They're supposed to be an apostrophe. Here. I

can feel my teachers looking at me. We just read that if we love

Jesus, then we should keep his commands right. Well, the Holy Spirit

is one who helps us by teaching us and reminding us of everything that Jesus

taught. How does he teach us through his word? As we read scripture?

We read scripture, and it's the Holy Spirit who illuminates what it means

in our hearts and in our minds. It's the Holy Spirit who teaches us,

and basically I think he helps us understand or he makes it makes sense

to us. He illuminates it in our hearts and in our minds, and

then in turn, he reminds us of the things he's taught us because we

just read it. Right, So, as we're learning through scripture and the

Holy Spirit's teaching us the things we learn and the things we are reading.

He's going to remind us when we need a most usually for the next big

one is this. The Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus. The Holy Spirit testifies

about Jesus, and we see this in John fifteen. Let's go to John

fifteen. When the advocate comes. We know the advocate, especially caval as

advocate is the Holy Spirit. When he comes, whom I will send to

you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who goes out from the

Father. He will testify about me. The Holy Spirit testifies the capital a

advocate. The Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus, testifies of the truth about who

he is and what he did. Okay, to testify is to give evidence

as a witness in a law court, in a court of law. To

give that evidence, the Holy Spirit gives us evidence that Jesus is both both

Lord and Messiah, that he died for the forgiveness of sins, and that

he resurrected. The Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus. Another thing the Holy Spirit

does is this Holy Spirit gives God's people to edify the church. He gives

God's people to edify the church. So let's go back to the First Corinthians

twelve that spiritual gifts texts we were reading from before. There are different kinds

of gifts, but the same spirit distributes them. Capital capitals are important in

the Bible, so don't just breathe by them, look at him. We

learn a lot from that the same spirit distributes them. There are different kinds

of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working,

But in all of them, and in everyone, it is the same God

at work. Now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given

for what the common good, not for selfish gain, not I mean anything

that are goals, but for the common good. To one there is given

through the spirit a message of wisdom to another, a message of knowledge by

means of the same spirit to another, faith by the same spirit to another,

gifts of healing by that one spirit to another, miraculous powers to another,

prophecy to another, distinguished between spirits to another, speaking in different kinds

of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are

the work of one and the same spirit, and he distributes them to each

one just as he determines. So we see that God, God the Holy

Spirit is gifting his people to edify the church. I'm not going to break

down all the spiritual gifts here because we actually are going to cover them later

on in the series, so you'll definitely want to make sure you're here for

that. But the main thing here I want that I want us to take

note of is that it's God the Holy Spirit who distributes the gifts for the

common good of his people. He is the one who works these gifts in

us, just as he determines he is gifting his people. Okay, I'm

two more. Can you guys hang off? Two more? Sweet? Can

I have the band come up? Please? And thank you? Okay?

Next one. The Holy Spirit speaks the truth about sin, righteousness and judgment.

The Holy Spirit speaks the truth about sin, righteousness and judgment. And

we're gonna look at John chapter sixteen. But very truly, I tell you

it is for your good that I'm going away. Unless I go away,

the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will

send him to you. Right, No, I no go, You no

Spirit. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the

wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment, about sin because people do not believe

in me. About righteousness because I'm going to the Father where you can see

me no longer. And about judgment, because the prince of this world now

stands condemned. I have much more to say to you, more than you

can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of Truth, comes,

he will guide you in all the truth. He will not speak on his

own. He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you

what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me

that he will receive what he will make known to you. Go back on

side. Please, this is like a tongue twister that's going to basically repeat,

but he will. Okay, this is Jesus speaking. The Holy Spirit

will glorify Jesus because it is from Jesus that he will receive what he will

make known to you. All that the Father will go to the next slide,

All that belongs to the Father is mine. So Jesus saying, all

that belongs to the Father is mine? Why because they're one. That is

why I said the Spirit will see from me. So the Spirit Holy Spirit

will see from us what he will make known to you, because it came

from the Father because they're all one God. The Holy Spirit will prove the

world we just read this will prove the world to be the wrong about sin,

righteousness, and judgment. He brings conviction of sin. That is one

of the things the Holy Spirit does in our lives. As a believer,

anytime we sin, we should feel conviction of the Holy Spirit. We should

if we don't feel conviction for sin for not following the commands of God,

and that means either doing something He told you how to do or not doing

something he told you to do. If we don't feel sin, or excuse

me, conviction for that sin, then I urge you to take a serious

look at your belief because belief drives our action. Not feeling any conviction of

sin is a mark of a nonbeliever or a non Christian. That's a mark

of not having a Holy Spirit of you. If you are a true Christian,

you have a desire in you to please God and to be obedient to

His commands. There's that desire in you. Why because He took out your

heart of stone and made it a heart of flesh with a new spirit in

you. He changed you. And just as a side note, there is

a huge difference between struggling and sin and being indifferent or even obstinate. All

believers struggle with sin, but the key is that there is a struggle.

If you are not struggling, you're like whatever. That's indifferent or even potentially

like I don't care. That's obstinate. That's a mark of the Holy Spirit

not being present in your life, because he would convict you of sin and

give you a desire to be like, man, I'm frustrated, I'm here

again. You will struggle with sin till Jesus comes back and perfects you.

But we don't lay down in it. Amen, resist temptation. And the

longer we walk with Jesus, the easier this gets, the better it gets.

Like the more successful, the better. We should get mad and resisting

temptation, but we won't read the perfection until Jesus comes back. Should be

getting a little closer every day. Though. Let's get back to the passage

you just read, but go to verse nine about sin because people do not

believe in me, About righteousness because I'm going to the Father where you can

see me no longer. And about judgment because the prince of this world now

stands condemned. The most important sin for the Holy Spirit to convict the world

of is not believing in Jesus, because that's the one that has to do

with our salvation. To convict us that we don't believe in Jesus. Righteousness

means of being right standing with God, in right relationship with him. So

Jesus is going to the Father to be in right relationship with him. And

the third thing mentioned here is judgment. God is a just judge. A

just judge means someone who judges correctly and rightly. He's a just judge,

and he will exercise his judgment on Satan, who is the prince of this

world, because he stands condemned. But it's not just Satan, it's also

those who are of the flesh in the world with him. John three eighteen

says whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands

condemned already. Why because they have not believed in the name of God's one

and only son. It's not a new thing, right, he stands condemned

already for not having believed. And there's a couple other things. At the

end of the John sixteen passage. But we're going to move on to the

last one I want to mention today, and that is the Holy Spirit transforms

us into the image of Jesus. The Holy Spirit transforms us into the image

of Jesus. Do you remember we read in Ezekiel, then we get a

new heart. We've talked about it in a bunch. We get a new

heart. He gives us his spirit. His spirit will move us to follow

his decrees and laws, to do what he commands. Jesus was the perfect

example of obedience to God's commands, a perfect example and one of the things

the Holy Spirit does as he's convicting us of sin, as he gives us

the desire, not just the desire to obey, the ability to obey.

He gives us the ability to obey the commands of God, just as we

see Jesus do. And it's explained beautifully and in second Corinthians three, which

is one of my wife's favorite verses. And we all who with unveiled faces

contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory,

which comes from the Lord who is the what, who is the Spirit.

This is coming from the Lord who is the Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit

who transforms us into the image of God, verse into the image of Jesus,

and other translations say from degree to degree of glory. I love that

because I always think about, like when I could overwhelmed a big change,

and I say it's at the gym to everybody all the time, like how

long does it take to turner cruise ship takes a while, small incremental change,

it's the same thing. But that's all happening because of the Holy Spirit's

working in us. They're moving from degree to degree of glory or with ever

increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. It's by

the power of God, the Holy Spirit in us that we're made more like

Jesus every day, and he will complete that work in us. He will

complete that work in us. Just to drive that point home, must look

at Philippiness too. Therefore, my dear friends, this is Paul speaking Paul

and Timothy speaking to the church in Philippi. Therefore, my dear friends,

as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much

more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling

forward. Is God who works in you to will and to act in order

to fulfill his good purpose. I love that is God who works in you

to will and to act in order to fill his good purpose. Any time

we act in accords with God's plan or even desire to, it's God working

in us. God's Holy Spirit is doing this work in us that should bring

us comfort as believers, like, oh sweet, the Holy Spirit is doing

something to me. That's assurance of salvation. Because the Holy Spirit is literally

working in you. It's amazing and should bring some comfort. So to recap

the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. It is God's Spirit,

not some mystical spiritual force or weird superpower. Definitely not a magical wand

to wave around. And he was sent as our advocate and helper to convict

the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, to gift God's people,

to edify the Church body all as he transforms God's people more into the image

of Christ every single day. What does that mean for us right now today?

What does that mean for us? What do we do with all of

this information? Well, if you're already a Christian, you know the Holy

Spirit is trying to do this work in your life. So I would say

start walking in the same direction, or don't watch sprint run in the direction

of being made more to the image of Christ. Don't resist his work in

your life. Don't make it harder on yourself. Follow along the conviction of

the Holy Spirit, turning to following the example the Christ set for us in

scripture. That's who we're being made more like His believers. So follow in

that prompting sprint in the direction of being more Christlike and rely on God the

whole time, because He's the one to do in that work. And if

you're unsure, if you're a believer, then I would say, remember these

verses in first John four. This is how we know that we live in

Him and he in us. He has given us of his spirit, and

we've seen and testified that the Father has sent his son to be the savior

of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,

God lives in them and they in God. That's comfort scripture right there.

But this is not you. Then this should bring a sense of urgency in

you. Remember these verses because if you have the Holy Spirit in you,

then God lives in them, you will see the marks of the Holy Spirit's

work in your life. And if you don't see those marks and that concerns

you, we're going to have our pastors and elders on the sides praying for

people come up and talk to us. We'd love to talk to you about

that, because I believe that if you feel concerned like something's not right,

that that is one of the first steps of God drawn you to himself,

like he's saying something's not right, let's fix that. And he didn't leave

us hanging. He gave us the answer to make that right. So come

talk and pray with one of us. We'd love to talk with you about

that. It's God who reveals who Jesus is, and it's God who reveals

when you're still in your sins. And it's God who gave me the ability

to believe, to believe in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of

your sins. And he's the one who gives the ability to repent. When

repenting like that's just a word that might fly over some people's said, that

just means a turn to God and away from your sin. To turn to

God and away from your sin, and the cherry on top is God who

saves you through what Jesus did on the cross. He set the plan for

how all this works, and he's the one who explain how it works.

He's the one who brings it to fulfillment. It is and this is one

of my favorite scriptures. It is the will of God the Father that all

who look to the Son and believe receive eternal life and are raised up in

the last day. Amen, pay let's stand ward feet. Like I said,

there's going to be our elders and their wives that they're available for prayer

on the side. So if you need prayer for anything, go get prayer.

We'd love to pray for you. If you aren't feeling comfortable going up

and getting prayer, even though it highly encouraged you to be brave and step

out and be courageous, but if you're just not quite there yet, that's

okay. Our connect card on the back of it we have a spot you

could write down your prayer requests. This will go out to all of our

leaders and even our community group leaders and as many people as we can get

to seem so we have more people praying for your prayer requests. If you'd

rather just stay to the church, elders, then just write an audios on

there or right, please keep private and then we'll be praying for it.

We won't send it out to everybody, but yeah, and you just drop

this card in the offering box on your way out, and the same place

you drop your offering envelope if you came prepared to give. Okay, I'm

gonna pray and we're gonna sing a song if I get this in my binder.

But as we sing, I want you to I don't know, like,

are you say what song you're singing? None? But Jesus, how's

the bridge go? Say the bridge? All my delight is in you,

Lord, all my hope, all my strength there it is is in you.

I don't know. I was just singing and I loved it because I

feel like all my delight is in you. Because like I pray, often

think that God would grow our affections for him, especially in me. I'm

like, God, grow my affections for you. That just means make me

love you more like all your the affections of my heart. I want the

delight of my heart to be the Lord. And I'm praying that he would

grow that in me. And so when we were singing that bridge earlier,

I was like, man, it's just so good. And so my prayer

and my hope is that while we sing this song when we get to the

bridge, hopefully we're singing the bridge when we get to it, that God

would continue to grow our affections for him, that our delight would truly be

in him, because He should be the greatest, the light of our heart.

He saved us, like he drew us out of the darkness and put

us in the light. He took us from spiritual death to spiritual life.

And we should delight in that because that's amazing. If we're good with God,

we're good with everything. Nothing else actually matters. If we're good with

God, everything's okay. God. We thank you for today. Thank you

for your word. God. We pray that as we studied you, the

Holy Spirit, that you've I don't know, that you've opened something in our

hearts to understand that better God, that as we looked at scripture, you

opened up our minds to understand your scripture. Good God, continue to teach

us who the Holy it is, who you are as the Holy Spirit,

and let us keep in step with your work in our lives that you are

transformed with transforming us more into the image of Jesus every single day. So

God, I pray that we don't push against that, but we keep in

step with that. We sprint in that direction that we want to be more

like you Jesus as you grow our affections for you. God, I also

pray that you just continue to put into this this desire to please you,

to live according to your plans, according to your designs. You are the

creator of life, so you have the best plan on how it should be

lived. So God, I pray that we are able to walk in that

and you continue to grow us in that. God, I just thank you

for this time we've spent today in your word and pray that it's sealed in

our heart for the week to come. Pray that you are glorified and you

are pleased with us as we see this next time. To Jesus name,