I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
And born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, died, and was buried;
[He descended into hell.]
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
And is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The holy catholic church,
The communion of saints,
The forgiveness of sins,
The resurrection of the body,
And the life everlasting. Amen.
The British theologian Alister McGrath once identified the Holy Spirit as “the Cinderella of the Trinity.” “The other two sisters,” he said, “may have gone to the theological ball; the Holy Spirit got left behind every time” A book was released some years ago on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It was called The Forgotten God. In John 13-17 we have a record of one long conversation that Jesus had with his disciples. He had much to teach them about the Holy Spirit.
READ JOHN 14:15-31; 15:26-16:16
- THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A PERSON
In 16:7 Jesus says it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. Who exactly is the Holy Spirit? He is a person. The third Person of the Trinity. To emphasise this point Jesus breaks the rules of Greek grammar. In Greek you have nouns which are masculine, feminine or neuter. If a Greek noun is masculine then the pronoun attached to it must be masculine. Now the word spirit is neuter in Greek and therefore the pronoun attached to it should also be neuter. But to emphasise that the Spirit is a person Jesus deliberately breaks the rules and attaches a masculine pronoun (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:8, 13, 14). Why do I stress this? Because many cults reduce the Holy Spirit to a mere force. He is a person. Even Christians have this annoying habit of referring to the Holy Spirit as an ‘it’. He is a he!! In Matthew 28:19 and 2 Corinthians 13:14 the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are mentioned together. To suggest we are to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and electricity, assaults our common sense. But that is not all we are told about the Holy Spirit. He is not just a person. He is a divine person. In Acts 5:3 Peter accuses Ananias of having lied to the Holy Spirit. In the very next verse Peter goes on to say; you have not lied to men but to God. To lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God. - THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SCRIPTURE
We all know that the Holy Spirit and the Bible go together. In Ephesians 6 the apostle Paul describes the bible as the sword of the Spirit. In John 14:26 Jesus says; but the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Not only would the Holy Spirit remind the disciples of everything Jesus said but He would also inspire their writing. In 2 Peter 1:21 we read; for prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. In 2 Timothy 3:16 Paul can say; all Scripture is God-breathed. The Holy Spirit is equally responsible for inspiring the OT. Hebrews 3:7 introduces a quote from Psalm 95 by saying so as the Holy Spirit says. - THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE ONGOING MINISTRY OF JESUS
In John 14:16-20 Jesus tells his disciples that although he was going away they would not be abandoned as helpless orphans to fend for themselves. “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth.” In John 16:7 Jesus says it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. In John 14:28 Jesus repeats himself; you heard me say, I am going away and I am coming back to you. How does Jesus come back to us? Through the Spirit (John 14:18). This is important. In John 14:23 Jesus says; if anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Why will the indwelling Spirit be even better than having the physical presence of Christ? In John 14:12 we read; I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. What could Jesus possibly have meant? Have you ever raised someone from the dead? Walked on water? Multiplied a Wimpy Burger and fed Muldersdrift? No! So what could Jesus have meant? Leon Morris highlights two things. Firstly, there are incidents of miracles of healing in Acts but the emphasis is on the mighty works of conversion. On the Day of Pentecost more believers were added to the church than throughout Christ’s entire earthly life. Here is a literal fulfilment of the greater works Jesus is speaking about. Being instrumental in leading someone to faith in Christ is a greater work than making a lame person walk. The latter is only temporary but the former has eternal benefits. Secondly, think about it. If Jesus was physically here he would be in one place at any given time. If we wanted to see him we would have to take a plane to Israel (if that was where he was), disembark and go to the town where he was. Presumably there would be a long queue waiting to speak with him. It would be very difficult. But now the Holy Spirit is with us the ongoing ministry of Christ is not limited by space and time. He indwells believers in Moscow, London, Washington, Pretoria and Krugersdorp. He is also at work all over the world convicting people of their need for Jesus.
Now that Jesus is in us his power is wherever we are. This is why Acts 1:1 starts the way it does. In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach. It’s not that Jesus worked while he was here and now the church works in his absence. Jesus worked then through his incarnation and he works now through His church. What the Holy Spirit did through Jesus in the Gospels He continues to do through the church.