The Attributes of the Holy Spirit, Part 2

The Spirit also worked in Jesus from birth. A small incident occurred before his ministry began in earnest that often gets overlooked, but it’s the only mention of his youth. The fact that this appears to have been the only incident important enough to recall for posterity indicates its importance.

When Jesus was 12 years old, his parents were with him in Jerusalem. An entire day after they left the city, they realized their son was not with them. They searched frantically and retraced their steps to the city. I imagine their hearts leapt whenever they saw a boy who could resemble him and then sink as they realized it was not Jesus. Finally, they found him in the temple. Teachers–Pharisees and Rabbis–were gathered around him as Jesus listened to them and asked questions far too sophisticated for the average 12-year-old. When his mother scolded him, he answered her, “‘Why were you searching for me?. . . Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?'” (Luke 2:49). The Pharisees and Rabbis were amazed at Jesus’ knowledge and wisdom; knowledge and wisdom that came from the Spirit.

The Spirit was active in Christ’s teaching and his preaching throughout his ministry. The Spirit was active in the prayers of Jesus and as he taught prayer. We are to see the Spirit as a gift and know that he intercedes on our behalf as we pray (Romans 8:26).

Luke tells us that it is the role of a Father to give his children good gifts: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (Luke 11:13). The Holy Spirit is the best gift.

This gift was given to Jesus officially at his baptism although it was part of him–being God himself–all his life. His baptism affirmed Jesus’ nature as the son of God and Messiah. In Luke 3:21-22, we see God the Father speaking from heaven, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending, and Jesus praying: the triune nature of God embodied.

John 3:5 tells us: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” I believe the need to be “born of water” is in reference to our baptism by water–an outward sign of the inward baptism of the Spirit which is when we die and arise in the Holy Spirit as a new creation. Jesus sets the pattern for us to receive the Spirit by taking on himself the sins of the world and paying our death penalty on the cross.

His resurrection, his overcoming and defeating of death and sin restored our right-standing with God that enables the Holy Spirit to enter in and take up residence in our newly washed hearts. In this we see the great love of God. It is a love that we are not capable of alone. The Spirit who resides in us brings with it this deeper love and enables us to become hands and feet subservient to His will in this world.

Christ also prepares us for the Spirit by forging a fellowship between believers. After His death and resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples and showed them His wounds, telling them that He would send them out into the world to do God’s work.

“And when he had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’.” (John 20:22)

But, they did not receive the Spirit until Pentecost. What did he mean? In Luke 24:46, and again in Acts 2, we see the Disciples coming together in the upper room sharing meals and their stories of Christ working in their lives. They were prepared by this close fellowship to receive the Spirit.

Even though the Spirit had not yet come upon them in that upper room, the Spirit was still present as they came to one accord and one mind concerning the things of God. They were being prepared in their hearts and minds to receive the Spirit. We see the Holy Spirit moving in their hearts, guiding their thoughts and actions, we see the power of the Spirit when He comes upon them as they preach to the crowd. We see the Spirit active in the crowd as they hear and receive the message and as they take the message forth. The Holy Spirit goes before us, preparing the way, just as John went before Jesus. So too, the work of Jesus paves the way for the work of the Spirit.

On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down from Heaven into vessels who had been prepared by Jesus to receive Him. Then the work of the Church began in earnest: the gospel message was shared in Jerusalem and moved out into the larger world.

The work of Christ still continues. The Spirit is working in the world in us as Jesus works with us in the New Testament and as God worked for us in the Old Testament. This work is not new as it began in the Garden when a Savior was promised to Adam and Eve. That Savior lives, and through his Spirit residing in us, continues to live and work in this world, bringing light to the darkness.

The Holy Spirit in the New Testatment

As we look at the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, I want to begin with Joel 2:28-29:

And it will come about after this that I will pour out My spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. And even on the male and female servants I will pour out my spirit in those days.

“It will come about after this. . .” Chapter two is titled, “The Terrible Visitation,” in my edition. It speaks of the troubles of Israel of a conquering army devouring the land. In verse eight, the Word promises deliverance. The nation of Israel had been conquered time and time again as a consequence of failing to follow God. As they turned again to Him each time, He restored them.

In 70 AD, the Romans destroyed the temple. The Jewish people, left without a homeland, dispersed into other nations. This dispersal, called the diaspora, lasted thousands of yeas. In 1946, their land was finally restored to them. The land of the Jews had lain a desert for hundreds of years; in a few generations, the land has been converted into the paradise flowing with milk and honey it is today. God has blessed the land through the Jews.

This brings us to the promises of the Spirit, which will be as the nation of Israel coming to Jesus and accepting him as Lord and Savior. This promise was fulfilled at Pentecost when he poured out his spirit on the believers–themselves Jews. However, the nation of Israel did not believe as a nation. It needs to be noted her that God deals with Israel as a nation and Church as individuals. The first believers were Israelites who accepted Christ as individuals. They left not only their lives behind but also their people and became new: Christians. Paul was called to bring the gospel message to the Gentiles after his conversion, fulfilling the promise to Abraham that all the world would be blessed through him–through the nation of Israel. Old Testament prophesies always have two levels of interpretation: a message for the nation of Israel and another for the Church.

Hebrews 3:7-11:

Therefore, just as the holy spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me in the wilderness, where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, and saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; and they did not know My ways.’ As I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.'”

This generation had seen the miracle plagues God had brought down on Egypt. They saw the column of smoke and fire that led them to safety, they walked along the bottom of the Red Sea while the Hand of God held the waters at bay.

Image courtesy of theswordbearer.org

Yet they continued to reject God’s freedom. They had known only slavery in a pagan land and they could not or would not live free in God. He refused to let any of them enter the promised land; the entire generation died in the wilderness. Only the generation who had been raised in the freedom of the desert, under the rule of God, was allowed to enter and claim the land. So too, the generation of Israelites who rejected Jesus also perished for their unbelief. This is a warning to the Church and its people to maintain our relationship with God through the Holy Spirit.

Before the first Pentecost, the Holy Spirit did not indwell believers. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit did mighty works through God’s people but He did not take up residence in their heart as he does today. The hearts of men and women of God were still burdened with their sin; they were too tainted to allow the Holy Spirit in. On the cross, Jesus took the sins of all generations: through His sacrifice, we are cleansed. Because of this undeserved sanctity, our hearts can now provide a home for the Holy Spirit who abhors sin. In the Old Testament and the New, the Holy Spirit has remained the same. He is the same yesterday as today and as tomorrow. This should bring comfort to all believers, for the same spirit that worked in Enoch, Noah, Moses, Abraham, and David is at work today in all believers.

The Holy Spirit enables us to worship “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24). The Holy Spirit has physical descriptions:  it is envisioned as water that flows or is poured out; wind, the invisible force that we can only be aware of through the things it can do; fire that consumes us and at the same time makes us whole. At Pentecost the spirit came upon the believers in the upper room as tongues of fire which bringing the powerful Word of God. The disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke the word with the authority of God. That word spread like fire and that fire is still burning today in those who accept Christ into their lives and do His work by allowing the Spirit to work through them. It is the power of the Spirit coming on them that compelled them to write the Gospels and the Letters that now make up our Bible. It is the same Spirit that guides us and interprets that same Word of God.

The bible speaks of the seven spirits of God, now I don’t want to go too far into depth but I see this as the perfection of the holy spirit in that the spirit is perfect in his person, in his holiness and wisdom he is perfect in his power and discipline in his grace and work in his service and glory He is perfect in his truth and his anointing and in his comfort and the rest in the lord. He is perfect in his attributes and that I will leave for next Sunday. the same spirit that moved Peter at Pentecost, that moved Paul to take his many journeys and start all those churches, the same spirit that moved John to write and work is still available today IF we are willing to receive the gift. To receive a gift you must use it and to use it you must trust it and if you trust it you must yield to it. Yield to the spirit and he will set you free!