The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit

I put myself in the disciples' shoes. How great would that have been to be taught by Jesus Christ Himself? I've had mentors over the years. I've had guides and helpers. I've not had Jesus Christ kind of sit in the seat next to me and point things out and give me the guidance always. He does that throughout His Spirit, of course. But the disciples could touch Christ. They could, as John did, lay their head on His chest. They could interact with Him. He was there to be that support. He gave them this knowledge that we have recorded in the Gospels, and yet He told them, I'm not going to be here with you very long and where I go you can't come. And they're like, we don't understand. Where are you going? Like, tell us where you're going. We'll come with you. They didn't get it, but yet He was telling them, I'm not going to be here forever.

And then that time came when the disciples saw Jesus to be arrested. He was arrested. He was mock. He was tried in a mock trial. He was crucified for the sins of the world, and He died before many of their eyes. They saw His body placed in the tomb, wondering, is this the end?

Many of them went back, kind of, for a short amount of time to their careers. Some of them went back to fishing. Some of them went back to other things that they had done before. I wonder if they thought that it was the end, that He wasn't really the Son of God. But then what happened? He was resurrected. The ladies went to the tomb and it was empty. And then the word spread that Jesus, the tomb's not there, that His body's not there. And then what happened? Jesus presented Himself to the disciples. And I can't imagine the emotional swing of those years and those days. Can you imagine that? And then Jesus taught and stayed with them in spirit form for another 40 days, continuing to teach them more about the gospel message, more about the good news that He was coming, knowing that there's going to come a time when Jesus was going to ascend to the Father for the last time, and then they would not be left with His presence, other than through His Spirit working in their life. And then that day came when Christ did ascend and He left His disciples again to continue the message, to continue the journey. All of this occurred in this time period that we're in right now, between the Days of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Pentecost coming up in two weeks. What an emotional time for the disciples. What a time when they at times wondering, did you come back? Were you resurrected to now establish your kingdom? Because we thought maybe before you were going to do it, but now we know you have to do it now. This is the time. But it wasn't His time to establish His kingdom yet. They were probably gearing up, thinking, we're going to take on the world, and you're going to lead us to do it, and we're all ready to just go and fight and do whatever you want us to do. He was preparing them to take over the world and take on the world, but not quite in the way that they probably imagined.

Jesus taught them many things and gave instructions for what they were to do when He would leave them again. And He told them that He would be to their benefit if He was to go away, because by Him going away, He would in turn provide the Helper to them that would forever change their lives. And so, as we move towards this Feast of Pentecost, I'd like to dive into the doctrinal topic of our teaching on the Holy Spirit. Let's open our Bibles to Acts chapter 1 and verse 1.

We're going to pick up the story where Jesus is still with them after His resurrection, and He's been teaching them and talking with them for a period of 40 days, continuing to expound and to place this hope that is in all of our hearts into their hearts. And the writer of Acts, Luke, he wrote this to Theophilus as maybe a history lesson, kind of to archive the life of Jesus Christ and what He came to do and to serve. And so, the writer, Luke, he wrote and captured this history account, which we lean on still today for its importance and for the aspects that happen in the early church.

Notice Acts 1 and verse 1. It says, a former account that I made Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which He was taken up, after He, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles, whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, because He had already shared that the promise was for them to receive God's Spirit.

And so, He's reminding them, this promise has already been promised to you. We've already talked about it. And He says, which, He said, you have heard from Me. He said, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

And He said to them, it is not for you to know the times of the seasons which the Father has put in His own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. It's an amazing message and responsibility that Christ shared with the disciples.

There's a place, there's a point in Scripture where He says, greater works you will do than I can do. And sometimes that's baffled me because I'm like, who can do greater works than Jesus Christ? But He's saying His sphere of influence was limited because when we look at the geographical region in which Jesus performed the miracles, which He traveled, which He taught, it's in comparison to the entire world, it's a very small area that He lived in and that He performed these miracles. And I think as He was foretelling the future time, His Spirit would come into the hearts of man and then they would go out and we would go out to spread out that many more people would be called.

Many more miracles would be seen much further away than just in Galilee and just around Jerusalem, but that it would spread throughout the entirety of the earth. This is what He's getting to here and saying, this is your responsibility to take this message to every possible corner where God is working and where He is calling people. Verse 9 says, now when He had spoken these things while they watch, He was taken up and a cloud received Him out of their sight. I, again, put myself in the disciple's shoes. What would that have been like to go through these 40 days, the emotional swing, to have Christ come back in Spirit form to continue to teach and to expound and then to, I guess, in the greatest of mic drop moments ever, to then go back up into the heavens and be gone for good in this fashion.

I don't know what I would have done in that moment where they're looking around at each other and saying, what's next? Where do we go from here? But He'd already given them that direction. What did He say? Stay here. Be in Jerusalem. There's a Holy Day coming up. I want you right here. And they did.

While we do not have a specific fundamental belief focused solely on the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is a core component to our beliefs and is captured clearly in two of our fundamental beliefs that we have in the Church. It's referenced in many of our fundamental beliefs, but these two fundamental beliefs kind of encapsulate our teaching on the Holy Spirit that I want to share with you today. In our fundamental belief, God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, it says, we believe in the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God and Christ. The Holy Spirit is the power of God and the Spirit of life eternal. From our fundamental belief, water baptism and the laying on of hands, it says, we believe through the laying on of hands with prayer. The believer receives the Holy Spirit and becomes a part of the spiritual body of Jesus Christ. So I'd like to take the time we have to look at a few different ways, just four different ways that the Holy Spirit works in our lives with the first being that the Holy Spirit is the power that transforms. The Holy Spirit is the power that transforms. Before He left them for the final time, and as we read in Acts chapter 1, Christ said that they would receive power. Power in the Greek is the word dunamis. From Thayer's Greek definitions, it means strength or power or ability. I especially like the complete word study dictionary that we have here in the words that I highlighted and underlined. They define it as power, especially achieving power. That word achieving, I think, is the key here. Achieving power. All the words derived from the stem duna have the meaning of being able or capable. It goes on to say spoken of intrinsic power, which means belonging to the essential nature or essential character, either physical or moral, but intrinsic, kind of internal, like who we are, the presence. It's like it's not just we plug a cord into the electrical outlet, and that's where we get the power that we didn't have ourselves. This is power from within.

Trying to think of analogies. Forgive me if this one goes off topic, but kind of like Batman and Superman. We all know the old Batman cartoons or shows. Batman had a tool for every enemy he encountered, right? He had that tool belt that he had his spider spray, and he had his boomerang, and he had everything else that he needed in his tool belt. That wasn't really intrinsic power. That wasn't internal to who he was. He had these tools that he used. But if we consider Superman, his ability to look through concrete walls, the ability to fly, the ability to shoot lasers out of his eyes, right? That was internal. His strength was inside. He didn't need tools to be able to do these things. So I know, I just brought up Superman and Batman in a sermon. But I think you get why I did that. It really does paint the picture of how God's Spirit works as this power in our lives. Sometimes I think we can visualize God's Spirit as working like a tool. Something we pick up and we use and we put back down for a while. But the reality is, and we know it's not that way. The reality is, it's inherent to who we are. It becomes part of us. God could have just given his Spirit as a tool that we utilize or that he helps us with. But he says, I want to go even further than this. I want this to be something that sits in the heart of my people. Sits in their brains. That they can feel. That does things that nothing else does in this world. Nothing else can bring the comfort. Nothing else can bring the encouragement. Nothing else can convict us.

How many times have we been in a situation where we knew internally, I have to do this.

I can't not say something right now. I can't not go and help someone right now, right? We've had those instances where we are drawn so powerfully that it's almost like somebody grabs our hand and says, go with me. That's the power. That's the intrinsic, internal power. The complete power of God working in our lives. And so it's much more than something external. This is intrinsic. This is achieving power. This is capable power. It's interesting. When we consider the Greek word dunamis, our English word for dynamite is derived from that same Greek word dunamis.

This is a picture of Alfred Nobel. You may be familiar with the Nobel Peace Prize and things like that. He was a Swedish chemist, an engineer, an inventor and businessman, and he was most famous for inventing dynamite. And he did that in 1866. Now, prior to him inventing dynamite, often construction, whether it was mining or construction industry, they used nitroglycerin to blast things apart. I've never worked with nitroglycerin. We're not allowed to use it. It's very unstable. It's very dangerous. Many people lost their lives using nitroglycerin for the mining industry and for the construction industry and things like that.

And so, Alfred Nobel came up with the right chemical composition and the right way to package this to make dynamite more stable. It could be transported easier. It could be placed more safely so that less people lost their lives. What's interesting is he actually planned to first initially call it and name it Nobel's safety powder because it was saving lives. It was safer than the alternative. But isn't it kind of ironic that he would name it that when it's so powerful of a force? When we consider what dynamite can do, and especially as we recognize as the railroad industry expanded, as they had a start, I remember I shared a message here about Lewis and Clark going west. And when they got to the Rocky Mountains, they thought they would be more like the Appalachian Mountains. And they got there, and then all of a sudden they're standing there, seeing them from afar off and getting closer and realizing these are not the Appalachian Mountains.

This is a whole other beast that is in front of us. Well, the railroad industry knew that when they were wanting to expand the railroad system east and west. And they knew we have to somehow figure out how do we navigate through these Rocky Mountains. And the tool was dynamite. The tool was using something that would blast apart rocks, something that would clear a path that in man's abilities would be impossible. Something that if they just went out with pixas, pickaxes, and manpower, it would just prove a feat that would just be too much. But yet with a tool, with dynamite, everything changed. And I can't help but think about our own lives as God's spirit comes into the life of the believer. How powerfully this dynamite, dunamis, power works in our lives.

Things that we at one point could not let go of, couldn't release. Maybe it was a fear. Maybe it was a hurt. Maybe it was a level of brokenness that we needed to be healed of. Maybe it was an addiction. Maybe it was a character flaw. Maybe it was anger. All these different things that we have battled, some of us over the years and at different times, that people probably looked and said they'll never change. That's going to be that. Mike Phelps is going to be like that the rest of his life. And yet then God said, hang on, I've got another plan. I've got a different direction. But you're not going to do it yourself. You're not going to do it on your own strength. And nor will you recognize that you did it on your own strength, because I'm going to make sure that you realize there's only one way that these changes occur. And when we consider the analogy of clearing a railroad path through the Rocky Mountains, I don't think it's a far stretch to imagine the power of what God is doing in our own lives of transforming us from the inside out.

To release us from bonds that are unbreakable. To show us a better way forward than we could have ever envisioned in our mind. And even if we did envision that road being clear and wanting to go down that path, the fear enveloped us. The oppression held us back. The lack of hope just said, I can't do this. So I'm just going to stay here in my brokenness. And God said, no, we're going to go forward. We're going to change. But you're not going to do it. I'm going to do it. It's amazing to think through this and to realize just what God is doing in the lives of his people.

It's funny, I find it humorous, getting back to Alfred Nobel. A French newspaper mistakenly, a writer for a French newspaper mistakenly thought that Alfred Nobel had died. And so he was writing up a kind of an obituary, kind of a story of him. And he didn't really like the guy very much because of his invention of the dynamite and its use for non-good ways. We know that dynamite explosives were used in military applications as well. This French newspaper writer labeled him and gave him the name Merchant of Death. I hope you guys don't do that if anything ever happens to me someday, okay? I hope that's not the title. That's not what I envision people would say about me someday in the future. But this writer, this French newspaper writer, referenced him as the Merchant of Death because of how damaging and powerful his invention had become and was. How life-changing it was, both good and bad. This power that was encapsulated in a few sticks of dynamite could forever change lives in both good and bad ways. And that's where this analogy stops because God's Spirit convicts our heart, our soul. It moves us forward. It forever transforms lives in a positive way. And God gave it to us as a tool. This tool has released us from our bonds.

And we are on a new path going forward. This is the same power that God used to raise and to resurrect Jesus from the dead. It's the same power that the heroes of the Bible relied on to do amazing feats. And in Ephesians chapter 1, as you can see on this slide, Paul wrote that you may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power. This is the word dunamis towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand. Receiving the Holy Spirit gives a Christian the spiritual power needed to live a godly life. It helps provide the motivation, the strength, that makes it possible for us to be able to obey God's commandments, make great choices, overcome, and persevere. It's an understatement to say that this is a tremendous gift. It is the greatest of all gifts. It is a priceless gift. It's the only gift that any of us could ever receive that can do these mighty works in our own life. Without this gift, we cannot have a deep, close relationship with God, nor can we be his children. With the Holy Spirit, we can be led by God in our daily decisions, but we have to make an important distinction because God's Spirit doesn't drive us. It doesn't drag us. It doesn't push us. It doesn't force us to make decisions.

It will not prevent us from sinning, nor will it force us to do what's right.

We all, who God's Spirit is in our hearts, we all know this. Because why? Because we still sin from time to time. We continue to have struggles. We fall short. And sometimes we fall short, even with the prompting that the Holy Spirit does. It says, come on, Mike, you don't want to do this.

I said, no, but I do want to do it. And the Holy Spirit isn't going to just grab the wheel of our life and force us to do something. We know that. But if we yield ourselves, and that's the key, if we humble ourselves to God and his working in our lives, the power is unstoppable.

Things that were viewed as impossible in man's eyes were possible with this invention of dynamite.

And as we've referenced already, things that are impossible in man's lives to fix and to heal and to help are possible with God's Spirit working in our hearts and our minds. So this is one aspect of this gift that God has given to mankind. The Holy Spirit is powerful, and it provides us with the ability to live these transformed lives. Second, the Holy Spirit is the Helper for mankind.

It's a Helper for mankind. Another passage that let's turn to John chapter 14.

This is another passage that we often read about, read through at Passover time. I mean, we read through it all the time, right? But in the Passover service, we also often turn to these different sections here. John 14 is one of those sections. But it gives us insight to this aspect of God's Spirit being a Helper in our lives. John 14 and verse 15.

Notice Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another Helper. And this is that word that we're locking in on right now, Helper, that He or a guide may abide with you forever. This is that promise He told the disciples about when we just read in Acts chapter 1, that He will give us another Helper, and that He would give them a Helper. And He refers to it in verse 17, the Spirit of Truth, which the world cannot receive because it neither sees it nor knows it, but you know it, for it dwells with you and will be in you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in my name, it will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all things that I have said to you. This word Helper here in verse 26 and previously in verse 16 is paracletos in the Greek. Other translations, if you're using the King James Version, your version may say Comforter instead of Helper, or if you have the New Living Translation, it will say Advocate instead of Helper. But I really appreciate the New King James word Helper because it highlights another way that God's Spirit works in our life. We're going to read some passages about Jesus Christ being our Advocate and how he advocates for us on the throne before our Father. But the Holy Spirit also serves as this type of Advocate, this Helper, this Persuader, this intermediary, which is a powerful way that we have this in our lives. Looking at the definition, the Greek definition for paracletos from the Complete Word Study dictionary again, means to comfort, to encourage, or exhort. It's properly a verbal adjective referring to aid of any kind. In the Greek writers, they used of a legal advisor, a pleater, a proxy, an advocate, one who comes forward on behalf of and as a representative of another. Often, again, this Greek word paracletos was used in a legal term, referring to legal counsel or advocacy. Barnes notes on the Bible describes it this way, the verb from which it is taken has many meanings. Its proper meaning is to call one to us, then to call one to aid us as an advocate in a court, then to exhort or entreat, to pray or implore as an advocate does, and to comfort or console by suggesting reasons or arguments for consolation. The word comforter is frequently used by Greek writers to denote an advocate in a court, one who intercedes, a monitor, a teacher, an assistant, a helper. And as we consider the context of John chapters 14-16, which again, the passage that we often read through the Passover season, we recognize that Christ was trying to encourage and comfort and support the disciples, knowing that his time on this earth was short, knowing that he would be gone, knowing that he would die before their eyes, knowing that they would feel left empty without his support, without his guidance in that physical form of him being God in the flesh. He knew that this would probably be their most disheartening moment of their lives, because you got to think, what did they give up to become a disciple?

They gave up everything. They gave it all up. They walked away from their families, from their careers, from their jobs, from the towns they grew up in, from friends.

There was nothing that they held back, nothing that he wanted them to hold back. If we're to become a disciple, we give it all up and follow after Christ.

So they had made this conscious decision. They had did it in a physical outward form, and now he's going to leave them?

I put myself in the disciples' shoes again. That would be really a disheartening moment to be one of his disciples. And so he's sharing through John chapter 14-16, I'm not going to leave you alone. Yes, I'm not going to be here physically, but something else is going to come and replace what I have done in your lives.

Continuing on, let's look at John 14 and verse 1.

John 14 verse 1. Jesus said, Let not your heart be troubled. He's saying, Don't be distressed. Don't be anxious about future events or what's about to occur.

He says, You believe in God, believe also in me, in my Father's house or many mansions or rooms or places to dwell. If it were not so, I would have told you, but I go to prepare a place for you. There's a reason Christ had to leave. There's work that he is doing still today in the in the third heavens. He says, And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also, and where I go, you know, and the way you know. I can't help but to just recognize how blessed we are all to have the Bibles that we have in our hands today. The Gospel accounts alone, what that does for the believer. I mean, the disciples didn't have the Gospel messages written out where they could carry it around and study it and to remember the promises that Christ had made to them.

We have God's Word with us where we go. The disciples didn't have Paul's writings that expounded and further taught and further helped them to understand the Gospel message and the aspects of the New Covenant. You and I walk around with these on our phone. These letters from Paul, the letters from Peter, John, Jesus's own words in these Gospel accounts. How blessed are we to have the comfort and the promises recorded in physical form that we have in our hands?

And so, to consider where they were at versus where we're at, I mean, it's just night and day different. This is why Christ gave them this message. He's saying, don't be unsettled. Don't be alarmed when these things go. I'm going to go away, but don't let that shake you because I'm not going to leave you empty. And we are so blessed to have what we have because Christ is preparing for His return and He's preparing for us to have a role to help and to serve Him.

As He prepares for His return, He also works as an intermediary in our lives right now. As we see in 1 Timothy 2, verse 5 and 6, He says, For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all. While the word mediator here is not the Greek word paracledos, it's not the same word, this role of a mediator fits with the definition of paracledos, one who pleads another case before a judge, a pleader, a counsel for defense, a legal assistant, an advocate. This is the role that Jesus Christ performs for you and me still today. He pleads for us understanding what it's like to be human. He understands what it's like to be hungry or to be heartbroken. He understands what it's like to hurt, to have pain, physical pain. He understands what it's like not to be emotionally burdened. He knows what it's like to suffer loss. All these emotions that we feel, all the challenges that we have, Christ lived it. And so as He is before our Father in the third heaven, He goes before us and He says, they're weak. They're challenged. They hurt. This physical existence is hard. But He also goes and intercedes, and He's that helper, that advocate, and we are so blessed to have Him before us. The passage we just read in 1 Timothy, and this one that is up on the screen, is important because it connects us to a secondary scripture which speaks to the role that Jesus serves as this helper, as this paracledos. We see this in 1 John 2 and verse 1. But I'd like to get the context of that passage in 1 John chapter 2. Let's start in 1 John 1 and verse 5. 1 John 1 and verse 5. We're going to get to chapter 2 here in just a moment, but I want to get the context. Let's start in 1 John 1 and verse 5.

The apostle John writes in 1 John 1 verse 5, This is the message which we have heard from Him, speaking of Jesus Christ, and declared to you. So this is John's account here, reflecting and giving this message to the church. That God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us, our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. We know there's no chapter breaks in the Greek, so the next thought is just a continuation of thought. Chapter 2 and verse 1, he says, My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate, paracletus, with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And He Himself is a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. Now by this we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. He who says, I know Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in Him. But whoever keeps His Word, truly the love of God is perfected in Him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says He abides, or He who says that I have my home with Christ, He's saying, this is where I live. This is my home. This is my place of comfort. This is where people know and recognize Me. He's saying, He who says He abides in Him must do what? Ought Himself also to walk just as He walked. So while Jesus is the mediator between God and ourselves, the Holy Spirit also provides us assistance and is a helper to us because it is the power of God. We each know how hard it is to walk just as Jesus walked, don't we?

Talking about setting the bar high, a record that can't be broken, right? It sometimes feels even pointless of trying to achieve it because we can't be the Son of God. But God did not lower the bar just because of our weakness state. He says, this is the measure, this is the the bullseye that you need to focus on and work to work to achieve. But He knows we can't do it on our own.

He knows we can't just dig deep sometimes and pull this power out of nowhere that is going to transform our lives. And so He says, I'm going to do something that is dynamic. That's not even a real word, is it? Dynamic? That's a better word. A dynamic way of transforming your life in a way that is power that you will know when it occurs, that it was not of yourself. And so the Spirit acts as this helper. It comes along our side. It acts as an advocate. It's a guide. It's a comforter. It's an encourager. It's the best help that we could ever have in this life.

And God gives it to us so that we can walk as Jesus walked.

So we have Jesus, who is our paracletus, our helper, our advocate. And we also have the Holy Spirit, which works as a helper in our lives. With this context, let's again read John 14 and verse 16.

And I will pray the Father and He will give you another helper that he or God may abide with you forever. This helper is what would abide with the disciples for the rest of their lives, as the Holy Spirit does for me and you today. So even though Jesus was about to leave them in a physical form, He would be their advocate with the Father. And He's explaining He will not leave them empty entirely by themselves. And so this is that powerful advantage that we have.

Let's notice John 16 and verse 7, flipping back to the Gospel of John. We read John 14, different passages from John 14. Let's flip ahead to John 16 and verse 7.

This is that promise that Jesus gave them again that He references in Acts chapter 1, but He says John 16 verse 7, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper, again, Paracletus, will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send it to you. And when it has come, it will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, of sin because they do not believe in Me, of righteousness because I go to My Father and you see Me no more, of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when it, the Spirit of truth, has come, it will guide you into all truth, for it will speak on its own authority, but whatever it hears, it will speak and it will tell you things to come. It will glorify Me, for it will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. Each of these items that Christ shared here is an aspect of His life that would be magnified upon His upcoming death. The Holy Spirit would be poured out to convict the world of sin when those around Him had rejected His teachings and His life. The Holy Spirit would convict the world of Christ's righteousness and innocence, even though He would be charged and crucified not for His own sins, but for the sins of the world. And the Holy Spirit would convict the world of judgment as the death of Christ was a judgment on Satan. It's through the power of God, the paracletus, that we receive the help to convict our lives of sin and to draw us to repentance, of being able to understand righteousness and live accordingly, and then properly discern or judge the things going on in our lives, and to understand the author of sin and confusion, which is Satan the devil.

The third aspect that we will look at briefly is that the God's Spirit is the identifier, the Holy Spirit is the identifier, of who His people are. The Scriptures clearly identify who belongs to Christ, that is, those who are Christians. Notice what the apostle Paul teaches in Romans 8 and verse 9.

Romans 8 and verse 9.

Paul writes, But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. So the Holy Spirit is an essential aspect that the Bible defines as a Christian, having God's Spirit dwelling within us. Further, only those who are led by God's Spirit have access to eternal life. Notice, and if Christ, verse 10, dwells in you, the body is dead because of sin, but what? The Spirit is life, ultimately eternal life, because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, which dwells in you. And so we have that down payment on eternal life through the end dwelling of God's Spirit. It's a promise. It's a down payment. It's a guarantee that if we continue running our race to the end, that God will get us to that finish line because of all the hope and all the promises that He has already made to us and wants to give us. So there's no question that the Holy Spirit residing inside of man plays a major role in the life of a Christian, not only for today, but ultimately for all of eternity. Paul goes on in verse 12 to say, therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. So Paul makes it very clear there is a separate designation for those who have God's Spirit to be His own sons, to be God's sons.

The Holy Spirit identifies us, as we just read through these different verses, four unique aspects. The Holy Spirit identifies us with Christ, as we saw in verse 9. It makes immortality possible to human mortal beings, and we read in verse 11. It makes possible an obedient, overcoming Christian life in verse 13, and it truly leads or guides and empowers and motivates the sons of God, as we saw in verse 14. And so it's clear that the Holy Spirit is God's identifier of who His people are. The last aspect we'll look at is that the Holy Spirit is given by God.

This naturally leads us in our journey back to the beginning of Acts, this time in chapter 2.

So if you want to turn back to Acts, the book of Acts, this time Acts chapter 2.

Because if one wants to have God's Spirit residing within their physical body, how does one receive that? Notice Acts 2 in verse 1.

Luke records this historical account by saying, when the day of Pentecost had fully come, so this is the Feast of Pentecost, this is 50 days after Jesus's resurrection, after His ascension to the Father. This is when the high priest would wave the barley harvest, would wave the first fruits, and then begin the count to Pentecost. So this is 50 days later. And the disciples had obeyed, they had remained in Jerusalem, they were gathered on this Holy Day. It says, So when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Could you imagine that tornado? You're sitting there, and all of a sudden this noise starts coming from outside, and you're like, I don't know what that is, and all of a sudden it swirls around the house, enters the windows, and you just feel it, you can see it. A miracle is happening in their presence. And it then appeared to them, divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when the sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. And then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, Look, are all these who speak not Galileans? And how is it that we hear each one in our own language which we were born? It's a beautiful miracle. God wanted to make sure that somebody didn't just think this was a tornado passing through the city. That some physical event, some physical nature event just occurred, and they're confused by it. He performed a miracle, and allowing languages to be understood as they taught from one language people interpreted and heard in their own native language. I will admit that sometimes I go to the feast in international areas. And selfishly, I pray a prayer that maybe for this feast, God would allow all this miracle to occur at that feast site. How awesome would that be, right? How awesome would it be to go to Mexico, or to go to France, or to go to these other countries where you don't really know the native language? And for one week, God would perform a miracle so that all of us could understand each other in the same way. I pray it because I'm like, God, wouldn't this be cool to see? One, miracle. Two, wouldn't it be awesome for fellowship? Imagine how binding it would be for all of us to be able to speak, to share bread, to share a meal, and be able to speak and understand.

It's simply probably one of the greatest miracles if it ever occurred in our lives, would be one of the greatest miracles we'd ever see, right? This is that miracle that he allowed to be performed on this day at Pentecost. Because, as we'll see in a minute, or we'll probably skip over that section, but these are people who came from all different countries, different dialects, different languages. Some traveled a big journey to come here on Pentecost to be together, and they're saying, I'm hearing what the person says, even though I know they're not speaking my language. How is that possible? It's an amazing miracle that he performed, going on in verse 12, and it says, so they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, whatever could this mean?

Others mocking, because you'll always have the mockers, right, saying, they're full of new wine.

But Peter, standing up with the eleven raised his voice and said to the men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it's only the third hour of the day. I love that he had to slide that in there. All right, come on, guys, let's use logic here. Nobody's drinking at this hour. But he says, but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel, and it shall come to pass in the last day, says God, that I will pour out of my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And then Peter goes into this amazing sermon that he gives on this Pentecost, recounting the history of mankind and recounting what Jesus Christ came, lived, and died for. And it convicted the hearts of those listening, because we get down to verse 37 when it says, and when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do next? Where do we go from here? I believe. What do I do next? It's a similar statement that we all made at different points in our lives, when God brought us to that step of repentance, because he's the one that draws us to repentance. And we recognize that our ways are not showing love to God, because we're not following his commandments and his teachings. We have weakness in this flesh. We have sins that we have to battle. And then we say, what do I do next? And a minister walked alongside each one of us and said, this is the way we see it in Scripture. These are the next steps to take.

This is what Peter is doing here, and this is what the men and the women here at this time are asking of him, what shall we do next? And Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are far off as many as what the Lord our God will call. That's where it all starts. It all starts with God, and it finishes with God. Isn't that the beauty of the gospel message and of what we have? Because it's not dependent on humankind. It's not dependent on you and me figuring this out. It's dependent on God being God, and I just fills my heart because He's the beginning, He's the end. He's the Alpha, the Omega. He's the start of our journey with Him. He's where it finishes up because of His promises, and so this is the truth of Scripture. Not very long after this, we have to realize that this day came to an end, the Holy Day came to a close, many were baptized, many became believers, but what happened right after that? They had homes to go to. They had lives to get back to. They had jobs to get back to, family maybe to get back to, and so they spread out. They went back to their native lands and native areas to continue now to be a Christian, to proclaim the truth and the good news of Jesus Christ. And not long after this persecution, entered into the church in Jerusalem. We know our friend Paul, well, he was Saul at this time, is going around creating problems and havoc in the church. He doesn't like this new teaching. He doesn't like this message, so he's creating problems, and so everybody starts packing up and heading for the hills, as they would say. Right? Get out of town. Get out of Dodge. And so, not only did some of these people go back to their native lands, but some were persecuted and they spread out even further into other countries to get away from this persecution. The amazing aspect is this gospel message, this zeal that they had in their hearts, this belief that was not going to change exploded. Kind of like that dunamis again, that dynamite, right? That power just went out.

It was un—it couldn't be contained. It couldn't be stopped. People started going to different places and saying, hey, have you heard of this guy Jesus? If you haven't, let me tell you the message that he came. Let me tell you how your life can go in a new direction, and it's not through you. It's through God. It's through his Spirit working within you, because I heard Peter talk about this. And the apostles went out as—the disciples went out as apostles. Other believers went out. New ministers came about. Deacons were anointed and—or ordained and went out.

The message exploded and started going out. And this good news about Jesus was shared far and wide, and as they did, many others became believers and were baptized. We see an account of this in Acts chapter 8 and verse 12. As you can see on the slide, Acts 8 and verse 12, it says, but when they believed Philip—because Philip was one of those who God gave a message to and said, go and do this work. And as he preached things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of—and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. They were physically baptized, as we do today. Immersed in water, fully immersed, but yet something was missing from their lives. And we see that just a few verses later in verse 14. Now, when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria—who? Samaria? There's believers in Samaria. I've got to see this.

They had received the Word of God. When they heard that they had received the Word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet it had fallen on none of them, they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they—this is Peter and John—laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. So this is the process that the early church established for new believers to receive the Holy Spirit. The process begins with God's calling and Him drawing one to repentance as they desire to follow after Christ. Baptism is that next logical step in the process. As we follow the example, Jesus Christ Himself provided and taught, therefore a baptized person must then have hands laid on them by a minister of Jesus Christ, as made clear in this passage.

So as we wrap up, I hope that you can see the importance of correctly understanding the Scriptural truth about the Holy Spirit, that it is God's power that can transform lives and help us better understand God's purpose and His will for mankind. The problem with the Old Covenant wasn't because there was a flaw with God. God did not give the Covenant with a flaw and say, the problem is on my side. The problem has always been on man's side. The problem wasn't with the Covenant. The problem was with mankind because we are weak in the flesh and struggle to follow God.

Because our character and our willingness to follow God is weak, God promised that He would make a new covenant with mankind where He would put His Spirit into our physical bodies. And through His Spirit, God empowers us to develop holy righteous character and to resist temptation and sin.

One of our study guides had this phrase in it that I have up for you now. It summarizes this tremendous blessing and instead of trying to encapsulate it in another way, I just copied and pasted because it's just beautifully written and speaks to just this power. It's like an exclamation mark on the message. It says, How great, and let's repeat that, how great is our loving God and Father who has made all things possible through His Son Jesus Christ. His work within us is accomplished through the greatest gift that could ever be made available for human beings. The power, love, and mind of Christ through the Spirit of God at work in our lives.

There's times that we read in Scripture that when a statement, a wonderful statement, would be made that people would answer by saying, Amen, Amen. And I think this is one of those statements that we could read and internalize and all we could do is say, Yes, Amen. I agree. It's such a tremendous blessing that God has given to us. One that can't be earned. It can't be paid for. We can't do enough good things in our lives to receive it, but God says, I will give it if you commit yourself to walk as Christ walked. If you will accept His sacrifice in place of your life and then with that newness of life, you make a contract with me. You make a covenant with me that you're going to fight to do better for the rest of your life. You're going to fight to let God, my Spirit, work within you and to change you. You're going to let go of those things of your past. You're going to let my Spirit transform you. You're going to let my Spirit blast a path through the rocky mountains of your life. If you do those things, then I will be your God and I will give you the ability to be my son for all of eternity. Sons and daughters for all of eternity. What an amazing God that we have. What a tremendous gift that God has given to mankind. This beautiful, priceless, can't put a cost on it. Unmeasurable gift of His Holy Spirit. May we all be continued encouraged as we go through these days and as we get to the Feast of Pentecost here in just two weeks, may we continue to reflect, as I've appreciated the sermon at again and the scriptures we were able to read today, to reflect on what God has done for mankind and as His plan continues to work out for all of humanity. What His desire is to give all the gift of His Spirit to transform their lives.