The Holy Spirit: Who, What, When, Why and How

Well, tomorrow is Pentecost. We think of the Day of Pentecost. There's many things that come to their mind because it is a multifaceted Holy Day. We will think of the Holy Spirit because as the Day of Pentecost came in 31 AD, it's dramatic the way that God brought the Holy Spirit and gave the Holy Spirit to the New Testament Church. He drew specific attention and showed just how important that was in the development of the Church to have that Holy Spirit put in them.

At the Bible study last Wednesday, we went through much of Acts 2. You'll remember the sound of rushing mighty wind, the tongues of fire that sat upon people, and then the change of the disciples as they went forth after receiving the Holy Spirit and went out into the multitudes and were able to speak to them in their own languages, understand others in their own languages, and speak with boldness and authority about what had happened with Jesus Christ and that He was the Messiah.

Different people. The Holy Spirit had such an effect on them. There are other things that we think about on the Day of Pentecost as well. We'll talk about some of those as well today. But today I want to talk about the Holy Spirit. And I want to talk about it in the context of just five questions that we can ask about it. Some of these you will consider very basic. Some you might need to be reminded of.

But today let's ask five questions about the Holy Spirit. Why? When? What? Who? And how? The Holy Spirit. So important to God. So important to God that it was on the Day of Pentecost with just 120 people gathered together in one little room in that day. Of all the thousands and thousands and thousands that were gathered in Jerusalem for the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came on just those 120 in dramatic fashion, as I said.

Why is the Holy Spirit important? Is it important? I think we all know those questions. But there may be some newer among us or maybe some listening to this sermon now or at another time that take the Holy Spirit for granted. It's talked about so many places on earth. It's talked about in so many different ways. You can go on the internet and you can find just about anything you want. Why is it? How is it? How does it even? How do you receive it?

Can everyone receive it? What does it do in our lives? Well, simply put, the one big thing that the Holy Spirit imparts to us is it imparts eternal life and salvation. Without God's Holy Spirit, without God's Holy Spirit, there is no eternal life. Without God's Holy Spirit, there is no salvation. There is no other way. The Muslims don't have the answer. The Catholics don't have the answer. There's only one way to eternal life. And the Holy Spirit is absolutely requisite in it.

Without God's Holy Spirit, no man would have eternal life. How do we know that? Well, you know, as Paul, not Paul, Peter, as he spoke to the congregation, the multitudes in Jerusalem, he went to the Bible and he proved them from the Bible that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. He went back to the prophecies of the Old Testament. He went back and everything he said, and when he was done, we know what the conclusion was in verse 38. We get it. Now we know. What do we do? Well, let's go back as we answer these questions. Let's look and see exactly what the Bible says.

So why is it important? Let's go back to, or forward, I guess we haven't turned into our Bibles yet. Let's go to Acts 2 and build the answer from what Peter was saying that very day as they were gathered there in Jerusalem after they had received the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2 and verse 25, he says this is part of his sermon.

Now remember, as we read these words, they're not every word that Peter said that day. And also remember that Peter hadn't prepared a sermon ahead of time. He hadn't labored for, you know, weeks ahead of time, thinking, what am I going to say on this day of Pentecost? This was completely impromptu. These are God's words that led him to it. Peter had no idea that he would be speaking to multitudes in the way he would.

He had no idea that he would even have the boldness to go out and do that because he was in an environment that was hostile toward anything of Jesus Christ. But here in verse 25, he addresses eternity, if you will, and what happens after death, which even the Jews at that time really didn't understand what happens after death and what is the purpose of mankind.

In verse 25, he references David, King David. David says concerning Christ, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. David knew well before Jesus Christ was on earth. He came from David's lineage. He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. He knew that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, would be with him always.

Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope. Well, where's hope come from? Hope comes from the resurrection, from the life of Jesus Christ. He died. He was resurrected. He was given life. And so we have that hope. David knew that. He goes on in verse 27 and says, you won't leave my soul in Hades. Of course, Hades is the grave. You're not going to leave me there in the grave.

David knew that when he died, he wasn't going to heaven. He wasn't going to the other place that people today want to talk so much about. He knew he was just going to lay in that grave. And he said, I know God. You're not going to leave me in that grave forever. That's not what your purpose is. You have a purpose for me. You won't leave my soul in Hades, and you won't allow your Holy One to see corruption. And so Jesus Christ indeed did not see corruption.

In three days and three nights, he was resurrected before his physical body ever decayed. You have made known to me the ways of life.

David knew. David knew that this physical life was one thing, but eternal life was quite another. Mortal man, physical man, does not have eternal life inherent in him. Many of the world's religions will deceive us into thinking that we have eternal life inherent in us. We do not. When God breathed the breath of life into man, he breathed mortal life, extinguishable life into mankind. Eternal life only comes from having God's Holy Spirit. And God's Holy Spirit is not put in us at birth. Only the spirit in man, as we talk about, and as it says in 1 Corinthians 2, is put in man. The Holy Spirit comes later in life when we get to some of those questions on why, when, and how. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of joy in your presence. Verse 29, Peter saying, Ben and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. He's dead. He's sleeping, as the Bible says in verse 34. David did not ascend into the heavens.

Jesus Christ himself said in John 3, 13, No man has ascended into heaven. The only physical, fleshly band that ever has ascended into heaven is Jesus Christ, and that was after he was resurrected. Every other man, woman, and child who has ever lived is dead and awaiting the resurrection. They don't go to heaven, just like Jesus Christ didn't go to heaven the moment that he died. They don't go any other place. They sleep, and they wait until the resurrection.

You know, Jesus Christ, we can go back to John 5. Thank you. I hope I don't need this, but sometime... Actually, there was one up here, and I didn't even see it. Sorry. Okay, John 5. John 5 and verse 25. Here's Jesus Christ, you know, in his own words, and so many of the things of the truths of life, we can look at his own words, and later on, the disciples, the apostles, understood what those words mean. In verse 25, he says, Most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is... Well, Jesus Christ was referring to the fact that he is going to be the hope of eternal life. It was going to be his death, his resurrection that would set the pattern for all of mortal man. The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. They don't hear it now. They're asleep. Verse 28. Don't marvel at this, Christ says, For the hour is coming, in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice. That's where they are. They're not up there in heaven with him now. They're not anywhere now. They're sleeping and waiting for the return of Jesus Christ, in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth. Those who have done good. To the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil. To the resurrection of condemnation.

Some will receive eternal life. Some will receive just the opposite. Eternal life is not a guarantee. Eternal life is so much, well, 100% dependent on what God gives us and our response to him, but also a matter of our choices along the way. If we go over to Romans 8.

Romans 8, we commonly refer to this as the Holy Spirit chapter, so as we talk about the Holy Spirit, we can see where God inspired Paul, as he wrote many of the fundamental things to the church at Rome as they were coming into Christianity and understanding God's way of life. In verse 8 of Romans 8, let me read verse 7. The carnal mind, that's our natural mind, the mind that you and I have naturally, that every single human being has naturally. The carnal mind, the natural mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

And so we look at the world around us, and we can even see in ourselves the resistance that we have sometimes to God. Certainly before we went through the process of receiving the Holy Spirit, we can see the resistance. We didn't want to do anything that God wanted to. If he said it, we wanted to ask questions, and we wanted to prove that we don't have to do it. We see a world around us that thinks that they, so many of them, thinks that they are following the way of Jesus Christ, they simply are not. They simply are not. They're not following what Jesus Christ said. The carnal mind, the natural mind, is enmity against God. It's swayed by Satan, who is God's adversary. It's not subject to the law of God. It can't be. There's only one way it can be, and that's with God's Holy Spirit. So then, verse 8, those who are in the flesh cannot please God, 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. Notice that. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not Christ's. So the Holy Spirit is crucial. There's only one name by which salvation comes, and that's Jesus Christ. We'll see here in a minute. There's only one way by which a resurrection to eternal life occurs, and that's with God's Spirit in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. Verse 10, and if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is 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. Well, it was God's Spirit that brought Jesus Christ to life. They gave him eternal life. He lives today at God's right hand, and Paul says, the Bible says, that Spirit must be in you. The same Spirit that resulted in his resurrection to eternal life is a promise to us if we are Christ's, and it gives the definition of what it means to be Christ's.

1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15. While Romans 8 is the Holy Spirit chapter, 1 Corinthians 15 is the resurrection chapter. It talks about eternal life. It talks about Jesus Christ who is resurrected and that he was the first who has been resurrected to eternal life and the only one at this point, the only man who was flesh, who has been resurrected and who has returned, has obtained eternal life. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 20. But now Christ is risen from the dead. He has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. That's everyone, right? Everyone who has ever lived has fallen asleep. When the Bible talks about falling asleep, it's death. That's what is in store for you and me. That's what's in store for all of mankind. But now Christ is risen from the dead. He's become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man, notice the capital M, also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam, all die. Adam made the wrong choice. Adam and Eve rejected God. They let that natural human mind, that resisted God, think, I'll do things my own way. Forget what God says. I'll take matters into my own hands. And they ended up dying. They brought death to all of mankind. As in Adam, all die. Even so, in Christ, all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order, Christ first. Afterward, those who are Christ's at his coming. Who are Christ's? Well, Romans 8 defined it. Christ's are those who have his spirit dwelling in them. The ones who will be resurrected to life are the ones who are Christ's. By definition, from the Bible, they have God's Holy Spirit in them.

So the only way to eternal life, the only way to salvation, is to have God's Holy Spirit, to have God put it in you, just like he put it into the New Testament church there in 31 A.D. on the day of Pentecost.

Having God's Spirit in you is absolutely vital. It is the seed of eternal life.

Okay. Why? And there's other reasons it's important as well. We'll see some of those answers to why as we go forward. Let's talk about when. When do we receive it? When do we receive it? Well, there's only one way. There's only one way that we can receive the Holy Spirit, and Paul, not Paul, Peter, talks about that in Acts 2. As he's giving his Holy Day sermon on the day of Pentecost, as he proves from the Bible that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and that the people gathered there had put the Messiah to death by a lawless hand because we know that Jesus Christ wasn't guilty of breaking any law, spiritual or civil law.

The mob decided that he would die, and so that was how he was put to death. Pontius Pilate was powerless to enforce the laws of the land, and Jesus Christ died as a result of what the crowd wanted rather than what the laws on the books were. So as he goes through in Acts 2, and as he explains all this, so we come down to verse 37. We see the reaction of the people after they hear this and see it in the Bible. When they heard this, verse 37, they were cut to the heart. It had a visible effect on them. What they heard and what they believed, they would never be the same people again. They couldn't go back to where they were before they heard the sermon. It had that dramatic of a result or effect on them. When they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? What do we do? What have we done? How do we come back to God? He is the only answer and the only meaning in this physical life we live. And Peter gives them three steps on how to be reconciled to God and three steps to eternal life. Peter said to them, repent. Repent.

Now the word, Greek word, repent there is meta no eo, and it means not what so many times what you hear if you turn on Sunday morning television. Just prayer this little prayer.

Tell God you're sorry for what you've done, and turn back to Him, and He forgives your sins. That's not repentance. That's the world's idea of what they like repentance to be. But repentance itself, as you look at the Greek, it says that when a person truly repents, he thinks differently afterwards. To change his mind is completely changed, and he has an abhorrence of one's past.

So when these people were listening to the words and they recognized what they had done and what their lives were and what they had said no to and resisted, they recognized I had done everything apart from God. I haven't followed Christ at all. I haven't followed God at all. I followed my own way. I followed what I've wanted to do. And they didn't want to go back to that way at all.

It's the same repentance that we have to have. It has to be a heartfelt, sincere repentance that doesn't just happen in 30 seconds. It happens over the course of time. It happens as you practice the way of God, as you really go back and look at your life and compare it to Jesus Christ, to all the teachings that He gave. How did He live? How did He obey God? What was His response to people? How did He treat them? If we're disciples, we're not only studying His words, we're studying how He was. And that's what we are to become. And when we go back and we look at the words of the Bible, as God opens our minds to understand it, because that is one of the why's of the Holy Spirit, because without God's Holy Spirit, we can't understand those things. 1 Corinthians 2 tells us, we have the knowledge of God and the understanding of God when His Holy Spirit is with us and begins to open our minds. Not with us, not in us yet, but with us as He begins to open our minds to what we've done, as He did with this group of people that were there in Jerusalem that day. Now, you can read anywhere from 250,000 to 2 million people were in Jerusalem gathered for the for the day of feast of Pentecost. Whatever the number was, it was far more than 3,000 who were baptized that day. They heard what the message was, but only a few of them were cut to the heart. Not everyone that was there understood everything that was said. We'll get to the win of that a little bit later. But Peter says, repent. You have to have a heartfelt repentance as part of the process of receiving the Holy Spirit. And then he says, let every one of you be baptized. Greek work, Greek work, and baptism. It means literally complete immersion in water. Not a sprinkling of water, but a complete immersion in water.

Now, so many people today will say, is baptism even really necessary?

As I was putting this together and I went on some other churches websites and even just some common and very popular, I guess, question and answer things about the Bible, they would say, it's nice, nice to be baptized, but really probably not necessary for eternal life.

And I thought, what Bible are you reading? Because it is necessary. Everywhere you go, baptism is necessary. Anyone who thinks that baptism isn't necessary isn't reading the Bible or isn't allowing God's mind to be in them. They're determining what they want it to be rather than what God wants it to be. Baptism is absolutely necessary. Peter lays out the process here. Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Here's the process. Here's how you do it. Absolutely, absolutely. You have to you have to repent. Can't fool God. He knows what's in our hearts. He knows what is in our minds. He knows the attempts of our thoughts. He knows the motives. And so we pray and ask God if we truly are yielded to Him, reveal this to us. Let us do the things that you want us to do in the way that you want us to do it. And cast away our own ideas.

And allow you to lead us and guide us. You know, 2 Peter 3.9, you don't have to turn there.

2 Peter 3.9 says, God wants everyone to have eternal life. The first step is repentance. You notice that verse? He doesn't say, God is not willing that any should perish. He wants them all to have to live, but they would all come to repentance. Because without repentance, there is no eternal life. Without repentance, there is no Holy Spirit that will be put in you. If there is no turning to God with your heart, mind, and soul, we may think that we've gone through the process. But you don't fool God. He puts His Holy Spirit in ones who follow what He has to say. Let's turn back for a moment to Mark 16. As we talked about baptism, Mark 16. Again, these are Christ's words, similar to what He said in Matthew 28, 19, and 20. In Mark 16, verse 16, He says, He who believes, and remember the Greek word believe as any time you read it in the New Testament, it doesn't mean believe the way we use it in the world today, but it's a deep, life-changing belief, just like these people in Acts 2 who said they were cut to the heart.

He who believes and is baptized will be saved.

Is it required? I don't know. I think I'll take Christ's words for it. He says the same thing in Matthew 28 as He commissions His church, go out and baptize all nations into the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Anyone who says it's not required is writing their own steps to salvation. Not following what God says are the steps to salvation. Let's look at the attitudes that are associated with baptism, because they are notable as we read about them. In Romans 6, Paul again, as he's instructing and educating and teaching the Roman Church on the Christian life as they are coming out of the Gentile way of life and all the things that they needed to overcome and the way that is the way of life that Jesus Christ determined for us to live. He says this in Romans 6 and verse 3. He says, Don't you know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Don't you realize that when we're baptized into Jesus Christ, He died?

And we are baptized into His death. When we're baptized, we are putting to death our former self. We don't want the way of life we used to live. The way we used to be has to be put to death. The sins that we that defined us, the sins, even if we live the so-called good life before baptism, we see the things that we did that were absolutely, completely apart from the way Christ lived and the way the Bible teaches us to do. And so baptism, repentance, baptism comes after repentance, is our outward display to God that I will put to death my past, my members, the sins that I committed, this old way of life I have. I'm not living that way anymore. Everyone in this room and everyone listening who's ever been baptized, that was the process. My old life I put to death. It led to nothing but death. Why would I continue in that way? It didn't lead to eternal life. It led to death. The wages of sin is death. And if we haven't put to death our old way of life, once we're baptized, we're fooling ourselves. We're not fooling God. The old ways die. That's what Paul says here. Don't you know that as many as we're baptized into Christ Jesus, we're baptized to and to his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death. That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we all should walk in newness of life. Not come up out of the waters of baptism and then just continue on the way we did before, not doing things the same way that we did, walking in newness of life. 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says that when we're baptized, we become a new creation in God's eyes. We are a newborn child in his eyes. baptism is that important. Now, it doesn't mean that we all change immediately after baptism. The rest of our lives we change. The rest of our lives we learn what it means to be living and walking in newness of life as God allows us to understand what it is that we need to change and what we need to do.

But baptism is an attitude of giving up the old and choosing God and following him explicitly. Verse 5, if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, Jesus Christ died to pay for our sins, we put to death our sins, our past lives in baptism. If we've been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. He died. He was resurrected to eternal life. We die in baptism. We come up and the God puts his Holy Spirit in us. We have the seed of eternal life if we continue in that way.

I'll give you a few other, a few other, one other verse. I won't take the time to turn to Colossians 2, 12, and 13, but you can mark that down and look at it later. How do we walk in the newness of life? We have to have the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, we can't possibly walk in newness of life. I already mentioned 2 Corinthians 5, 17, where we are a new creation when we come up. One of the verses that has always inspired me is 1 Samuel 10, verse 6. When the Holy Spirit — you don't have to turn there — when the Holy Spirit came upon Saul, says, when Saul, when the Holy Spirit came upon him, he was a different man. And God, and Samuel, said, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be a different man. When we're baptized, when we receive God's Holy Spirit, we are different people. Our outlook is different. The way we respond to things are different. What we count as important is different than the way it was before. And as we walk with God, and as we allow His Holy Spirit to yield in us, or that we allow ourselves to yield to Him and be led by His Holy Spirit, we see the different person emerge over time. So those who knew us before, we don't even really necessarily want to be around some of the people who we used to run with. But they see us and they say, you're not the way you used to be. That's a compliment. That's a compliment. If you're the way you used to be, you might want to go back and revisit what we're doing, what we're doing, and what we're here for, because the Holy Spirit is the way to eternal life. And if we're not using it, and if it's not in us at our deaths, there is no eternal life. Look at Hebrews 6.

Hebrews 6, in the first few verses here, we have the elementary principles of Christ. We talked about this not too long ago on the Bible study, but let's rehearse it again because in it, God lays out the steps to salvation. Verse 1 of Hebrews 6, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection. We're not perfect when we're baptized. It's a lifelong process to go on to become the pure person that God wants. Let's go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works. We consistently repent throughout our lives whenever God opens our minds to see the sins or the faults or the weaknesses that we need to overcome, but not laying again the foundation. That foundation is already there. The repentance from our old way occurred before we were baptized, if we did things the way God said. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, not laying again the foundation of faith toward God. That should always be there. If we've lost our faith in God, if we started trusting more in the things of the world or our own ideas or our own ways, we better go back and revisit it.

Always from that time forward, there should be repentance. There should be a faith toward God. Not visiting again the doctrine of baptism, because we've been baptized. We've made the statement to God.

We are willing to put our past life to death. Now, when we come out by the waters of baptism, a new creation in His sight to march forward from there and go on to perfection.

Of the doctrine of baptisms, of the laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. So when do we receive the Holy Spirit? After repentance. After faith. After repentance. After baptism. How? How do we receive it? Well, we can find that also in the look of Acts, but first let's go back to 2 Timothy and see how we receive the Holy Spirit. We know it's God who puts it in us, but there is a process that He asks us to go through physically in order for us to receive the Holy Spirit after we've repented, when we believe, after we've been baptized. In 2 Timothy 1 and verse 6, Paul, speaking to a young minister here, Timothy, he says, Therefore, Timothy, I remind you to stir up the gift of God. Spirit, God's Holy Spirit is a gift. I remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

That's how.

I remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. And then he defines what the Spirit is a little bit. God has not given us a spirit of fear. He's given us the spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind. Gives us the power to live the life that we need, power to overcome self, power to overcome sin, power to keep moving forward, the power of the love that we need that he wants us to have for him and each other, and a sound mind that comes from knowing the Bible and living by the Bible.

But it comes through the laying on of hands, is what Paul tells Timothy.

Back as the New Testament church is beginning in the book of Acts, in Acts 19, we find the same principle. Acts 19 and verse 1.

And it happened while Apollos was at Corinth, the Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to him to Ephesus, and finding some disciples, he said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

Good question. So they said to him, We haven't so much as heard whether there's a Holy Spirit.

And he said to them, Well, into what then were you baptized? And they said, In the John's baptism. Paul said, Well, John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. So when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

They were following the steps. They had repented. Thought they had done the whole thing.

So they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And, verse 6, When Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

So many people in the world will think, Oh, I have the Holy Spirit.

And yet when you look at the process in the Bible and you ask a question, well, were hands laid on you after you repented? In the way the Bible defines repentance, not in the way Sunday morning churches will define repentance. Were you baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Or were you baptized into a denomination? Were you completely immersed? Or were you sprinkled? And were hands laid on you by a minister of the Church of God?

Well, many times no one's even heard of having hands laid on you after baptism. That seems unnecessary, right? I mean, some people don't even think water baptism is necessary.

Many more don't even think about hands being laid on after them. So if you are one who's listening and you think you have the Holy Spirit and haven't done those things that the Bible has said, you might ask, is the Holy Spirit in me? It is a life-altering question. It is a matter of life and death. It is a matter of eternal life. Well, here's one example you can mark down in your notes there, Acts 8 and verse 17, where you see the same principle where someone was baptized, but they had not had hands laid on them. And so hands were laid on them at that time.

They had done the repentance. They had done the baptism, but the rest wasn't done.

So you have in Hebrews 6, how? Repent, baptized, have hands laid on you. Until that happens, until that happens, you have not received the Holy Spirit.

Well, now let's ask what. What is the Holy Spirit? If there is one confusion in the world today, what is the Holy Spirit? Again, if you go online and ask what is the Holy Spirit, almost everyone will tell you the Holy Spirit is a person. Is that what the Bible says? No, I think in a few short moments we can dispel that myth. Let's go back to 2 Timothy, where we were a few minutes ago, and see that nowhere in the Bible does it indicate that the Holy Spirit is a person.

2 Timothy 1. We read this a few minutes ago, speaking of Timothy, but just a question to ask. In verse 6, Paul reminds Timothy, he says, I am reminding you to stir up the gift of God.

Well, I don't know about you, but I don't think it's a good thing to stir up a person, do you?

When we stir up people, usually conflict and not-so-good things result. But he's saying, he's saying, Timothy, stir up the gift. It's a gift.

Is a person a gift? It's something that God gives us. And then he says in verse 7, he has not given us the spirit of fear, but he's given us a spirit, not a person to live in us. You know, Jesus Christ didn't need baptism. He never sinned. He didn't have to be baptized, but he did it. He came to John the Baptist, and he was baptized as an example to us. Remember what happened?

Says it in Luke, says it in Matthew. A dove came down and just lighted on his head. Lighted on his head. And God said to him in Matthew, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. Wasn't a person who came down. The dove didn't just kind of like magically dissolve into Christ and become part of him. He lighted on his head. It's as if God was touching him and laying his hands on him by that dove. In Acts 2, when you read about the tongues of fire that they saw on each other that was on each other's head.

Wasn't a person. The fire represented God, and it just stayed on their heads so they could see. It was as if God was there in that room. They felt the breath of the sound of the rushing mighty wind. They saw God descending on their heads. The flame didn't descend into them. There was no person that went into them. Nowhere in the Bible do you ever see where God refers to the Holy Spirit as a person. It is a power. It's the essence of God.

It's the power of God. You know, sometimes we define it as when we repent, when we're baptized, when we come up out of the waters of baptism, and we're a new creation in God's sight. And we have hands laid on us, and God puts his Spirit in us when we've gone through the process, the way he says to go through the process, the way the Bible says. It's as if God puts his essence, his DNA, in us.

You know, Father's in the physical life. Our children bear our DNA. They may look like us. They may act like us. As we go through life, we see some of the mannerisms. We see some of the mindsets, and we know where that came from, some good, some not so good. When God sees us as children, when we become new creations in his sight, and he puts his Spirit in us, it gives us the power to become like him. It gives us the power to begin to understand the Bible, something that we cannot do without his Holy Spirit.

Philippians 2.5, it gives us the mind of Christ that we can understand the things of eternal life. It gives us those things that we can begin. And row back in Romans 8, Paul uses this analogy back in that Holy Spirit chapter to show us what God sees us as when he puts his Holy Spirit in us, not a person in us.

It's God gives the Spirit. The Spirit comes from him. Romans 8, verse 14, says, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God, not sons of the Holy Spirit, sons of God. You didn't receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba Father. The Spirit itself, mistranslation there as they look at the foreign words and apply the gender terms of those incorrectly, the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

Children of God. His Spirit that he gives as a gift. That's what we become. That's what we must become if there will be eternal life. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs. Heirs of God. Just like our children are heirs of us.

Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may be glorified together. What is the Holy Spirit? It's the power of God. It's not a person.

It is the essence of God. It is him putting his mind in us and making it part of us. So when it joins with our spirit, we become complete people who know the way of God and have the power to overcome self and to do the things that God wants because without it we are incapable of doing that as Romans 8.7 shows, as our own prior lives show, as the world around us shows. Now let's talk about when and who will receive the Holy Spirit. Let's go back to this time, John 14. John 14. In Christ's own words, as he is about to be arrested, he speaks to his disciples many, many things. He talks about him going away. He talks about that he won't leave him alone. He talks about this comforter that will send to him, that will be sent to them, and that it's good that he's going away because this comforter, the Holy Spirit, will be with them and guide them. In John 14 and verse 16, he mentions this comforter, this helper, if you will, and he says a couple of interesting things in verse 16 and 17. If we look at the words he says, verse 16, he says, I will pray the Father and the Father will give you another comforter or another helper. The Father will give it to you that that comforter may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth which the world cannot receive because it neither sees it nor knows it. But you know him for he dwells with you or it dwells with you and will be in you. A couple things there. You know the disciples, they didn't receive the Holy Spirit until the day of Pentecost. They walked with Jesus Christ for three and a half years. They heard him talk, they listened to his teachings, they understood what he was saying, and they followed him, they gave up their lives to follow him. They knew and God revealed it to him to them that he was the Messiah or is the Messiah. But they didn't have the Holy Spirit in them until the day of Pentecost. But the Holy Spirit was with them the whole time that they walked with Christ. The Holy Spirit with us, as Christ says here, will guide us into truth. It's the Spirit of truth. And so as God begins to work with someone and some people, because his plan isn't for everyone to understand today, but I'll say with pretty good assurance, anyone listening to this today, God is working with you. God is opening your minds. The Holy Spirit is with you. Or you would have shut this off a long time ago and just gone on back with your old ways of doing things and your old beliefs. The Holy Spirit with you opens our understanding, opens the words of the Bible. The apostles could understand, the disciples could understand what Jesus Christ said. They knew it was truth.

And all of us at one time had the Holy Spirit with us.

Only those who have been baptized have the Holy Spirit in us. The disciples didn't have the Holy Spirit in them until the day of Jesus Christ. There's a big difference. So, God, we can think that we might have the Holy Spirit because we understand things, but there is a big difference because if we haven't repented, if we haven't turned to God, if we haven't been baptized, the Holy Spirit is not in us. And if the Holy Spirit is not in us, then we are not Christ's. And there isn't eternal life in our future yet until we go through the process.

So that's one of the things that we can see that is a little surprising, I guess, if you will, when you look at verse 17. The other thing that he says in verse 17, he talks about this spirit of truth, this comforter that the Father will send, that the world cannot receive.

The world cannot receive it.

So then who can receive it? If the world can't receive it, how can we receive it?

Well, Christ gives us the answer of what God's plan is, some of which we'll talk about a little bit tomorrow.

As we go through the Holy Days, we learn God's plan and rehearse it each year. But in John 6, in verse 44, he says, who can receive it? If the world can't receive it.

And we know that because we talk with so many people who just can't understand the same things that you and I see when we read the Bible, or it's just not important to them, or they think, basically, who cares? I'll just keep doing things the way I want to. God will be okay with that. Understand clearly, he will not be okay with the way we do things. We need to yield to do the things that he wants us to do in his way if we expect to ever have any hope of eternal life. John 6, 44. Jesus Christ in his own words, no one, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. So is it God's purpose in today's world to for every single person on earth to know the truth? No, it is not his purpose today. There are a few that he calls and opens the minds today, those who he chooses. Does it mean all the rest of the people are lost? No, it does not mean that. Jesus Christ and the Bible shows us there is another resurrection after the first resurrection where every single man, woman, and child who has ever lived will be resurrected. Every single man, woman, and child who has ever lived will have the opportunity to know what God has opened our minds to today. Every single man, woman, and child who has ever lived will have the opportunity to choose Christ, go through the process, receive eternal or receive the Holy Spirit, and have eternal life.

Whether they do it or not is up to them, just like whether we do it or not is up to us. God's will is that everyone would come to repentance, but we know from the Bible that not everyone does. And sadly, some will take of the second death and not see eternal life. But here Christ says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. That's for now what I'm working with. I'm working with this group called the firstfruits that God is calling. When God calls, if you follow, I'll work with him.

Verse 47, most assuredly, Christ says, I say to you, he who believes in me, following the context here of God calling, God opening minds, God's Spirit with you, that you begin to see these things. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life. Well, that means the seed is there. You're being offered that now. The rest of the world isn't.

The rest of the world will have its opportunity.

Verse 53, Jesus said to them, the rest assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, what we do at Passover, we throw our lot and we follow Jesus Christ, we eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, we change our lives to follow him, not keep doing the things that we have done before. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. You have no life in you.

So who and when? Well, God determines who and when. Everyone in this room, you're part of the who. Everyone listening, I have a feeling you're part of the who God is calling. When? When he opens our minds. Some very young in life, some very much older in life, but it's a matter of responsibility of us that when he opens our mind to choose him.

You know, in Acts 2, Acts 2, as Peter is talking about the promise of the Holy Spirit in verse 38, he says, repent, be baptized, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. In verse 38 and verse 39, he says, for the promise is to you, all you who hear, and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. Children of people, members of the church, you're being called. Parents understand that.

I hear sometimes people say, my children aren't being called. Oh, they're called.

They're called. But some of them choose not to respond to the call at that time. Just like so many who God calls decide not to respond to the call at that time. But they are called. They do have the opportunity to understand God and choose His way of life. Some may not do it now. We pray and hope that they will at a later time.

Baptism is for each person individually. Ezekiel 14 verse 20, you can mark that down. In it, God says, you know, whether it's Noah, Daniel, you name the person, they only save themselves. They cannot save their children. As much as we, as parents, would like to save our children, we cannot. We can teach them, and it's our responsibility to teach them. We can guide them. We can show them the example of God's way of life. We must do that, but it is their choice. It is their choice. But make no mistake. They are called, and they do understand that they have the opportunity that God has them to do that. If they choose not to, that's between them and God. You can pray for them and ask them to do that. And everyone who God calls, that they will understand the importance of the calling, the crucial, the coin of word, crucialness of the calling that God gives us, and the opportunity that He lays before us. Okay, we've gone through a lot, and we've talked about who. Who is called and can receive the Holy Spirit? When do we receive it? Why is it important? What is the Holy Spirit?

How do we receive it? What do we do when we receive it? A couple verses. I'll quote them. You can write them down. John 14 verse 15. Christ says a couple times, if you love me, keep my commandments. If you don't follow what Christ said, if you're not following the principles of the Bible, you do not, you are not marching with the Holy Spirit. If you are doing anything, if you think you have the Holy Spirit, and you are not obeying the laws and the commandments of God, you do not have the Holy Spirit, or you are grieving it, or you are absolutely quenching it, as the Bible warns us against too. You must follow the Bible the way that God says it's the only way to eternal life. Acts 5 verse 32. We're here in Acts 5 verse 32. The Spirit itself, God says in verse 32, we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit which God has given to those who obey Him. Must obey. Must do things the way that God says, and not think we can mix our will with His. It is His will. And Acts 4 verse 12 tells us there's only one way, and that is through Jesus Christ. That is through Jesus Christ.

So as we think of the Holy Spirit, I hope this has triggered some thoughts. It simply just scratches the surface of what we could talk about about the Holy Spirit, but gives you food for thought on the Holy Spirit as you look through the Bible. And as we reflect on the Holy Spirit, which God gave as a gift on this weekend, on this Pentecost day that we'll commemorate tomorrow, value the Holy Spirit. It is the most valuable thing any person could ever give, get, or receive, and it is a gift from God.