Sunday, 6/22/2025

WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?

The Holy Spirit is a real person—the third and coequal member of the Trinity. 

Acts 5:3–4 (ESV) “But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”

Acts 13:2 (ESV) While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

The Holy Spirit communicates with us and searches out the deep things of God to make them known to believers. 

Revelation 2:7a “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches… .”  

1 Corinthians 2:9–12 (ESV) “But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.”

He is the one who makes Christ a living reality. 

Ephesians 3:16–17 (ESV) “ that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,”  

Romans 8:9 (ESV) You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

The Bible reveals God as one God who mysteriously exists in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

GOD THE FATHER is the Sovereign ruler of the universe. 

God declared that without the shedding of blood there was no remission, or putting away of, sin. 

God would send the Messiah at exactly the right time—on God’s clock, not ours. 

Galatians 4:4–5 (ESV) But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

When Jesus came to earth, he didn’t come just to teach and preach, or even to do miracles. He came primarily to die. 

Salvation called for the Son to take on the guilt and suffer the punishment for our sins, past and present, so we would be freed from the condemnation of the law. 

How could I ever change into a godly person and obey God’s commands by my own self-effort? 

John 16:7 “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away”.

John 14:16–17 “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 world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you”. 

John 16:7 “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you”.

Although the disciples couldn’t comprehend it at the time, it was better for them to have the invisible Holy Spirit in them than it was to have the physical Jesus with them. 

Acts 1:4,8 “ ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about…. [And] 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’”.

Acts 2:1–4 “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 as the Spirit enabled them”.

It’s one thing to know the Word, but it’s quite another to obey it. 

No outward teaching can compare to the inward power of the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus had been with Peter, but now the Spirit was in him.

The Christian church was born through the power of the Spirit. 

Acts 2:42 “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer”. 

The same Spirit who verbally inspired the writing of the inspired, infallible Word of God-- the Bible, created an appetite inside of them for what it said. 

They also became bold witnesses for Christ, filled with wisdom beyond their training. 

Not only had the Holy Spirit been sent to earth, but he was also moving. 

He acted in and through his people—he demonstrated his power to glorify Christ.