WEBVTT 00:00:04.248 --> 00:00:14.486 our sermon text for today comes from two places in the gospel of john, and that's where we're going to start, and I think a lot of you who have read the gospel of john understand when you get into these parts of john. 00:00:14.486 --> 00:00:24.140 These are the long discourse that jesus has with his disciples during the time that we call the last supper and right before, of course, he is arrested. 00:00:24.140 --> 00:00:32.412 And jesus says some really powerful things to the disciples during this discourse and John captures them very, very powerfully. 00:00:32.412 --> 00:00:36.932 So we're going to turn to John 14 to begin with, and we're going to start in verse 15. 00:00:36.932 --> 00:00:53.304 Jesus says if you love me, you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. 00:00:53.304 --> 00:00:59.274 You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you Verse 18. 00:00:59.274 --> 00:01:01.063 I will not leave you as orphans. 00:01:01.063 --> 00:01:08.424 I will come to you Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me Because I live. 00:01:08.424 --> 00:01:11.781 You also will live In that day. 00:01:11.781 --> 00:01:15.512 You will know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you. 00:01:15.512 --> 00:01:26.802 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. 00:01:26.802 --> 00:01:30.603 That's powerful stuff, verse 24. 00:01:30.603 --> 00:01:32.025 While I am still with you. 00:01:32.025 --> 00:02:10.490 But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I have said to you. 00:02:11.981 --> 00:02:13.000 Now, flip over a couple of pages. 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:18.310 If you're using an actual physical Bible, go to John 16 and we're gonna pick up in verse five. 00:02:18.310 --> 00:02:26.610 Jesus continues on, but now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asked me where are you going? 00:02:26.610 --> 00:02:31.671 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 00:02:31.671 --> 00:02:41.848 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. 00:02:41.848 --> 00:02:51.788 But if I go, I will send him to you and when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. 00:02:51.788 --> 00:02:55.003 Concerning sin because they do not believe in me. 00:02:55.003 --> 00:02:59.042 Concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. 00:02:59.042 --> 00:03:06.753 Concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged Verse 12,. 00:03:06.753 --> 00:03:10.324 I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 00:03:10.324 --> 00:03:26.901 When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you in all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will declare to you the things that to come he will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 00:03:26.901 --> 00:03:29.950 All that the father has is mine. 00:03:29.950 --> 00:03:34.943 Therefore, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 00:03:37.807 --> 00:03:43.403 There is probably no more misunderstood member of the triune God than the Holy Spirit. 00:03:43.403 --> 00:03:53.981 And that's understandable, by the way, if you think about it, because most of us have been raised in families, whether good or bad, but we've been raised in the family. 00:03:53.981 --> 00:04:03.590 So, god the Father, we can recognize and associate and we can, kind of we can see God the Father, god the Son, well, we can understand that too. 00:04:03.590 --> 00:04:14.532 But God the Holy Spirit, it's a little more difficult, and the reason is we really have no frame of reference for that. 00:04:14.532 --> 00:04:21.249 You know, I don't know if you've noticed, but God's doing something pretty special here recently. 00:04:21.249 --> 00:04:26.495 It seems like ever since we came back to one service. 00:04:26.495 --> 00:04:28.663 God just seems to be moving here. 00:04:28.663 --> 00:04:29.928 The Spirit is moving here. 00:04:29.928 --> 00:04:42.747 It's really been wonderful and it's interesting because the themes that are coming out of the worship by the way, the worship has always been wonderful, but the other day I don't know what it was. 00:04:42.747 --> 00:04:52.108 Well, I know what it was From the first note that they hit. 00:04:52.108 --> 00:04:55.014 I just felt this power just hit me. 00:04:55.014 --> 00:04:59.610 The worship just seems to be anointed even more. 00:04:59.610 --> 00:05:01.884 People seem to be moved. 00:05:01.884 --> 00:05:07.932 More People are sharing scriptures in almost a prophetic way. 00:05:07.932 --> 00:05:11.329 People are sharing words of encouragement. 00:05:11.329 --> 00:05:28.351 Sometimes we've even had prophetic words and there's themes of things like identifying strongholds, removing strongholds, anger themes like anger and fear and shame have been coming out. 00:05:28.351 --> 00:05:33.668 That's the Holy Spirit and he's moving. 00:05:35.072 --> 00:05:40.601 A couple months ago, tyler came to us at the elders meeting and he said that you know he identified this. 00:05:40.601 --> 00:05:41.343 Of course we all saw it and knew it. 00:05:41.343 --> 00:05:42.603 He said that you know he identified this. 00:05:42.603 --> 00:05:44.545 Of course we all saw it and knew it. 00:05:44.545 --> 00:05:55.536 And he just said I really feel that the Lord wants us to teach on the Holy Spirit, that part, that member of the triune, god, the Trinity. 00:05:55.536 --> 00:06:17.951 And he said because this is a time where he's moving and we need to understand what he's doing, understand who the Holy Spirit is, the gifts that he bestows on the church, on us individually, how he moves and how he accomplishes the purpose of the gospel in this congregation and in this world. 00:06:17.951 --> 00:06:24.726 And so we decided to preach that series on the Holy Spirit, and I'm kicking it off today. 00:06:24.726 --> 00:06:28.661 But this is all to equip us. 00:06:28.682 --> 00:06:44.069 Now, before I jump into this first sermon series, for this first message on this sermon series, can I just be real with all of us? 00:06:44.069 --> 00:06:45.178 Can we be real together here for just a moment? 00:06:45.178 --> 00:07:00.127 Do you agree that we all have filters that were created from the past, teachings that we've sat under or books that we may have read, that guide and filter our understanding of something you know? 00:07:00.127 --> 00:07:03.911 By the way, that was a nail-biter last night that Tennessee game. 00:07:03.911 --> 00:07:21.240 I came to Tennessee eight years ago and I quickly came to understand those people that were raised in East Tennessee and their passion that they had for the Vols. 00:07:21.240 --> 00:07:23.446 It influenced them. 00:07:23.446 --> 00:07:29.807 I mean parents who taught their kids you are a Vols fan and you will not be anybody else, right? 00:07:29.807 --> 00:07:34.863 We're influenced by our environment and we're influenced by the teachings that we sit under. 00:07:35.807 --> 00:07:40.064 And, by the way, filters can be good when it comes to the, when it comes to truth, it can be very good. 00:07:40.064 --> 00:07:44.242 In fact, we're supposed to build filters of good doctrine and understanding that. 00:07:44.242 --> 00:07:51.848 But, if you're honest with yourself, sometimes our filters can be a little bit tainted and they need adjustment. 00:07:51.848 --> 00:08:07.862 And I can tell you that because, when it comes to the topic of the Holy Spirit, my filter was way off Because I was raised in a church that taught something very different than the Trinity. 00:08:07.862 --> 00:08:27.822 And so I just want to challenge all of us, including myself, because I've taken this challenge already and ask you a few questions, and this is something you have to answer for yourself Are we willing to allow our filters to be challenged by the word of God? 00:08:27.841 --> 00:08:49.053 I've had to go back and realize I sat under certain teaching that quote used God's word, but yet had an agenda, and sometimes they went beyond the word of God into that gray area, and that gray area became my doctrine and I realized, wait, a second, I got to go back to what Scripture tells me. 00:08:49.053 --> 00:08:55.597 Are we willing to take a fresh look at the doctrine of the Holy Spirit or do you think you got it figured out? 00:08:55.597 --> 00:09:01.083 You think you got him all figured out? 00:09:01.083 --> 00:09:09.234 Are we willing to honestly look at what Scripture says about who the Holy Spirit is and what he does and maybe in the process, challenge some of our long-held beliefs. 00:09:09.234 --> 00:09:25.019 And let me just say this Sometimes that tweak might be small, it might be just a small tweak, maybe it's a big tweak, maybe it's a. 00:09:25.019 --> 00:09:26.662 Let's just recreate the whole filter again, which is kind of what I had to do. 00:09:26.682 --> 00:09:32.106 This is a challenge that I think we should go into any sermon series, anytime we open up the Bible. 00:09:32.106 --> 00:09:32.827 We should do this. 00:09:32.827 --> 00:09:36.130 But I'm just going to ask you to challenge yourself that way. 00:09:36.130 --> 00:09:42.616 It's hard to be objective when it comes to those filters, but it's something that's important. 00:09:42.616 --> 00:09:49.482 So please accept that challenge with myself and the elders, and I'm confident God's going to speak to you and refresh your understanding of the Holy Spirit. 00:09:49.482 --> 00:09:53.011 I can't wait for the other messages to come on this. 00:09:55.081 --> 00:10:09.692 So in this first sermon, first series, first sermon of the series probably getting that all messed up we're going to be talking about the person of the Holy Spirit and we're going to take a look at these two passages and a few others and we're going to focus on three things. 00:10:09.692 --> 00:10:13.385 The first is the Holy Spirit as a person. 00:10:13.385 --> 00:10:22.331 The second is the Holy Spirit as part of the Trinity, and the third is the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian. 00:10:22.331 --> 00:10:24.533 So that's what we're going to do today. 00:10:24.533 --> 00:10:27.605 So let's dive straight in the Holy Spirit as a person. 00:10:27.605 --> 00:10:35.364 Well, let me just start with this Is the Holy Spirit a person or is he a force? 00:10:35.364 --> 00:10:48.826 Now you are in a church called Trinity Community Church, so I'm sure that most of you acknowledge the fact that God is a Trinity, but I'm not going to take that. 00:10:50.139 --> 00:10:58.951 Sometimes you can make assumptions that aren't always right, and if we're going to set this up from the beginning, we need to be convinced that the Holy Spirit is indeed a person. 00:10:58.951 --> 00:11:03.746 And you might say, well, why is that so important? 00:11:03.746 --> 00:11:04.789 Well, it's really important. 00:11:04.789 --> 00:11:12.288 If you think the Holy Spirit is not a person, you will relate to him very differently than if you think he is a person. 00:11:12.288 --> 00:11:23.969 I know that because from age 12 to age 30-something, that's the way I viewed the Holy Spirit and I discounted him pretty much. 00:11:23.969 --> 00:11:25.993 He was just a force. 00:11:25.993 --> 00:11:28.303 And it changed. 00:11:28.303 --> 00:11:36.586 My life changed when I embraced the concept that the truth, that the Holy Spirit was a person. 00:11:36.586 --> 00:11:41.485 Now we're going to go back to John 14, and we're going to start unpacking this. 00:11:41.485 --> 00:11:44.048 We get to realize the audience that Jesus was talking to. 00:11:44.048 --> 00:11:46.183 He's talking to the disciples. 00:11:46.183 --> 00:11:49.893 Does anybody know what religion the disciples were? 00:11:49.893 --> 00:11:53.144 Judaism, yeah, exactly. 00:11:53.144 --> 00:12:12.235 And if you look at Judaism, if you go all the way back in the Old Testament, you read all the Old Testament One of the main differences between the whole nation of Israel and all the nations around them was that, it's pretty simple they believed in one God. 00:12:12.700 --> 00:12:14.648 They had a monotheistic religion. 00:12:14.648 --> 00:12:16.346 They believed in one God. 00:12:16.346 --> 00:12:21.032 In fact, almost all the other gods and all the other nations, excuse me had multiple gods. 00:12:21.032 --> 00:12:22.720 It was a differentiator. 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:35.452 And can you understand now why the Pharisees got their nose so out of joint anytime Jesus talked about him being God Blasphemy. 00:12:35.452 --> 00:12:37.721 They would say that's blasphemy why? 00:12:37.721 --> 00:12:44.595 Because their whole religion was based upon monotheism and monotheism again. 00:12:44.595 --> 00:12:49.943 Monotheism and monotheism again is simply belief that there's only one God. 00:12:49.943 --> 00:13:04.070 So the concept of the Spirit of God would not, by the way, be totally foreign to them, because in the Old Testament, in Old Testament Scripture, there was references to a Spirit of God, and we're going to talk a little bit about that, but for the most part this would have been new to them. 00:13:04.190 --> 00:13:12.763 So, with that in mind, realizing that these disciples had that view, let's just read what it says, and we're going to begin in verse 16 of John 14. 00:13:12.763 --> 00:13:16.889 Now listen carefully to what he says. 00:13:16.889 --> 00:13:39.956 And I Jesus will ask the Father, god the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you. 00:13:39.956 --> 00:13:48.446 Even see Jesus introducing the disciples to the Holy Spirit, using language that is personification Right from the beginning. 00:13:48.446 --> 00:13:54.972 And there's a word in here that you might go over too quickly that really is pivotal in understanding this. 00:13:54.972 --> 00:14:08.130 That word is another Another In verse 16, he says and I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper. 00:14:08.130 --> 00:14:11.024 Now we automatically just go to the word helper a lot of times. 00:14:11.024 --> 00:14:20.592 Okay, but that word another is so key because Jesus is telling them that he's leaving and another is coming in his place. 00:14:20.592 --> 00:14:23.905 And you know that word another is interesting. 00:14:23.905 --> 00:14:28.923 That Greek word is alos, and it can mean one of two things. 00:14:28.923 --> 00:14:38.966 It can mean either another that is different or another that is exactly alike. 00:14:38.966 --> 00:14:43.072 Guess which one is used here? 00:14:43.072 --> 00:14:57.626 Exactly alike, exactly alike, not a different flavor, not a different shape, not a different color, exactly alike. 00:14:59.900 --> 00:15:09.432 You see, jesus was promising his disciples and, by the way all of us that when he left the earth, another person just like him would come in and dwell in us. 00:15:09.432 --> 00:15:17.509 And verse 18 reemphasizes this personhood of the Holy Spirit when he says I will not leave you, orphans, I will come to you. 00:15:17.509 --> 00:15:18.383 Wait a second. 00:15:18.383 --> 00:15:20.250 You're contradicting yourself, jesus. 00:15:20.250 --> 00:15:24.591 You're telling us you're leaving, but then you're saying you're going to come and dwell in us. 00:15:24.591 --> 00:15:28.951 Why didn't he say and the Holy Spirit will come to you? 00:15:28.951 --> 00:15:30.846 He says I will come to you. 00:15:30.846 --> 00:15:37.307 Do you see how he's using them, himself and the Holy Spirit, in the same breath, for the same function? 00:15:37.307 --> 00:15:40.408 It wasn't something different. 00:15:40.408 --> 00:15:43.969 The Holy Spirit is Jesus. 00:15:43.969 --> 00:15:50.543 Jesus is the Holy Spirit, and sometimes it's difficult for us to understand that concept. 00:15:50.543 --> 00:15:51.647 My next point's on the Trinity. 00:15:51.647 --> 00:15:56.469 We're really going to get into that, but it's important that you understand he is a person. 00:16:00.179 --> 00:16:07.474 Another revealing truth that is apparent if we look at this passage of Scripture is the use of the pronoun he, he. 00:16:07.474 --> 00:16:16.052 You know he is a masculine pronoun in Greek and it's eikinos, which is applied directly to the Holy Spirit. 00:16:16.052 --> 00:16:23.350 It's a masculine pronoun and, by the way, in Greek grammar the word spirit is typically accompanied by the neuter noun. 00:16:23.350 --> 00:16:28.400 Okay, neither male nor female, it's neuter eikineo. 00:16:28.400 --> 00:16:44.010 So you see right away that the translators are being faithful to that original text and they're saying he, a word, spirit, which typically is considered not a person. 00:16:44.010 --> 00:16:49.404 They are assigning it with that pronoun and that's important to understand. 00:16:49.404 --> 00:16:52.022 By the way, if anybody says, well, that's just twisting of that. 00:16:52.022 --> 00:16:57.422 This is the audacity that my old church had and it just bugs me when I think about it. 00:16:57.422 --> 00:17:00.145 I'm getting a little bit ahead of my notes. 00:17:00.145 --> 00:17:13.173 But they literally said that was a mistranslation, that the translators, these Greek scholars, were simply falling prey to a Trinitarian doctrine that was not of God. 00:17:13.173 --> 00:17:15.503 Oh, the audacity of that. 00:17:15.503 --> 00:17:16.426 I just think about it now. 00:17:16.426 --> 00:17:18.684 I just think why, why did I believe that? 00:17:18.684 --> 00:17:26.621 Well, that's why we have to have our filters tweaked right Now. 00:17:26.781 --> 00:17:30.691 I want to just quickly address this word helper, paraclete. 00:17:30.691 --> 00:17:38.932 We use the ESV right Most of the time we preach at the ESV and it's interpreted as helper. 00:17:38.932 --> 00:17:42.005 In some translations it's actually. 00:17:42.005 --> 00:17:45.413 The word is counselor, is put in place. 00:17:45.413 --> 00:17:48.128 Some it's advocate, advocate. 00:17:48.128 --> 00:17:52.069 And you might ask well, why didn't they just get one? 00:17:52.069 --> 00:17:53.424 Why isn't it the same word? 00:17:53.424 --> 00:18:04.121 I'll tell you why Because there's no English word that really describes this word helper or paraclete. 00:18:04.121 --> 00:18:07.705 I should say Helper, advocate, whatever the reality is. 00:18:07.705 --> 00:18:28.804 If you think about a helper, what the helper does assists you, maybe, helps you, teaches you, advocate okay, he advocates for us, counselor, he counsels us. 00:18:28.804 --> 00:18:34.441 Every time you see that word it's an attempt to try to describe the Holy Spirit in English words and we're going to fall short, so that's why it says different things. 00:18:34.441 --> 00:18:41.348 So please, when you're looking at your translation, don't get too wrapped up and say, well, it's an advocate, so it really can't be a helper and it can't be a counselor. 00:18:41.348 --> 00:18:43.566 No, it's all of that. 00:18:43.566 --> 00:18:49.967 That's why we study it a little bit into these languages to help us understand Truly. 00:18:49.967 --> 00:18:52.191 Every one of those describes the Holy Spirit. 00:18:56.077 --> 00:19:02.429 Now, if you recall my introduction, I challenged all of us to see past, or maybe our current filters on this. 00:19:02.429 --> 00:19:12.328 In this area of understanding of the Holy Spirit, of the person I mentioned, I had a huge filter in place and I actually went to our church's college. 00:19:12.328 --> 00:19:13.212 It was a seminary. 00:19:13.212 --> 00:19:16.203 Basically the only degree we could get when we were there was theology. 00:19:16.203 --> 00:19:20.727 So I sat in every type of theology class you would expect. 00:19:20.727 --> 00:19:30.104 You know the epistles of Paul, the general epistles, the life and teachings of Jesus Christ who went through, the gospels, all that stuff. 00:19:30.104 --> 00:19:31.127 I sat in all of those. 00:19:31.127 --> 00:19:47.867 Now we would actually have the Bible of the church approved was the New King James Version, and we had a bookstore on campus and we all went and bought the wide margin Nelson New King James Version. 00:19:48.690 --> 00:19:50.537 And then we all bought repudiograph pens. 00:19:50.537 --> 00:19:52.560 How many people know what a repudiograph pen is? 00:19:52.560 --> 00:20:00.145 Oh good, believe me, it was just fun to say repudiograph because it made you sound smart. 00:20:00.145 --> 00:20:06.224 It literally is a pen that won't bleed through flax paper. 00:20:06.224 --> 00:20:08.888 Yeah, you might look them up. 00:20:08.888 --> 00:20:15.000 By the way, if you like to mark in your Bible and you're tired of your pen bleeding through the other page, buy a repudiograph pen. 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:16.305 See, you did learn something today. 00:20:16.305 --> 00:20:17.126 This is really good. 00:20:17.126 --> 00:20:32.508 Well, what would happen is we'd go to our classes and we'd take our notes down in our notebooks and then at night we'd sit in our studies and we'd open up our Bible and we'd transfer those notes with a rapideograph pen. 00:20:33.855 --> 00:20:39.644 And so I want to show you a picture of my Bible, my New King James Bible. 00:20:39.644 --> 00:20:44.615 Now, this is pretty interesting, you'll notice. 00:20:44.615 --> 00:20:46.079 This is in verse 17,. 00:20:46.079 --> 00:20:51.460 Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. 00:20:51.460 --> 00:20:55.488 But you know him, for he dwells in you and will be with you. 00:20:55.488 --> 00:20:59.746 Now you can see I've kind of scratched out what I wrote in there before. 00:20:59.746 --> 00:21:02.903 This was after my eyes got open and I scratched it out. 00:21:02.903 --> 00:21:03.444 I was mad. 00:21:03.444 --> 00:21:08.405 It says should all be it. 00:21:08.405 --> 00:21:11.201 I literally wrote that in there. 00:21:11.201 --> 00:21:21.128 You see, I was taught that the Holy Spirit was the power of God, not God. 00:21:21.128 --> 00:21:35.320 And so all through my book and this is all through my Bible I started to try to correct it and then I realized so much of the doctrine of my church was in that Bible, I just put it on the shelf. 00:21:35.320 --> 00:21:40.422 All the hours of rapidi-ref pen work gone. 00:21:40.422 --> 00:21:51.364 I keep that Bible to remind myself of what truth is and how far God has taken me. 00:21:51.364 --> 00:21:55.190 I am so, so grateful for that. 00:21:57.277 --> 00:22:12.458 When you stop explaining away truth and take these scriptures for face value, it's so evident that Jesus is clearly giving the Holy Spirit a personal name he is a person. 00:22:12.458 --> 00:22:18.992 Now let's just take a look at some scriptural references that talk about the Holy Spirit in terms of a person, and I'm going to go through these rather quickly. 00:22:18.992 --> 00:22:21.320 References that talk about the Holy Spirit in terms of a person, and I'm going to go through these rather quickly. 00:22:21.320 --> 00:22:21.982 The Holy Spirit teaches us. 00:22:21.982 --> 00:22:23.449 John 14, 26,. 00:22:23.449 --> 00:22:28.784 But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things. 00:22:28.784 --> 00:22:32.817 We've already talked about this he will teach you all things. 00:22:32.817 --> 00:22:33.518 He's a teacher. 00:22:34.359 --> 00:22:35.320 Romans 8, 15,. 00:22:35.320 --> 00:22:42.250 The Holy Spirit leads us, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 00:22:42.250 --> 00:22:45.838 Okay, did you know the Holy Spirit prays for us? 00:22:45.838 --> 00:22:49.027 Let's go back to Romans 8, verse 26. 00:22:49.027 --> 00:22:59.124 Like the way the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for, as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 00:23:07.375 --> 00:23:11.164 Did you know you can grieve the Holy Spirit Ephesians 4.30, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 00:23:11.164 --> 00:23:13.998 Do you know that the Holy Spirit has the capability to give gifts? 00:23:13.998 --> 00:23:15.800 Give gifts. 00:23:15.800 --> 00:23:18.066 1 Corinthians 12,. 00:23:18.066 --> 00:23:18.926 Romans 12,. 00:23:18.926 --> 00:23:19.749 Ephesians 4,. 00:23:19.749 --> 00:23:24.625 All of those list gifts specifically coming from the Holy Spirit. 00:23:24.625 --> 00:23:29.720 Did you know the Holy Spirit can hang out with you, he can fellowship with you? 00:23:29.720 --> 00:23:31.662 2 Corinthians 3, 14,. 00:23:31.662 --> 00:23:37.304 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you. 00:23:37.615 --> 00:23:39.517 Trinity, right there, clearly identifies that the Holy Spirit is the one. 00:23:39.517 --> 00:23:40.006 The Holy Spirit be with you. 00:23:40.006 --> 00:23:43.546 Trinity, right there, clearly identifies that the Holy Spirit is the one that's going to fellowship with you. 00:23:43.546 --> 00:23:49.023 All these scriptures are assigning personal attributes to the Holy Spirit. 00:23:49.023 --> 00:23:52.159 You can't grieve an inanimate force. 00:23:52.159 --> 00:23:57.009 You can't fellowship with an inanimate force. 00:23:59.935 --> 00:24:06.317 Sometimes I wonder if Star Wars was influenced by Satan Boy. 00:24:06.317 --> 00:24:07.583 Somebody's going to kill me for that one. 00:24:07.583 --> 00:24:10.118 But think about it. 00:24:10.118 --> 00:24:14.439 The force, right, the force, but this force. 00:24:14.439 --> 00:24:16.826 That's the way we explained it. 00:24:16.826 --> 00:24:20.325 That's the way me as a kid, because I was a kid when Star Wars came out. 00:24:20.325 --> 00:24:22.377 That's the way I kind of explained it. 00:24:22.377 --> 00:24:25.896 It's a force, it's not Force. 00:24:25.896 --> 00:24:26.680 Doesn't pray for you. 00:24:26.680 --> 00:24:29.557 All right. 00:24:29.597 --> 00:24:34.566 Point number two the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity. 00:24:34.566 --> 00:24:40.806 In order to understand the Holy Spirit, we cannot look at him outside of the concept of the Trinity. 00:24:40.806 --> 00:24:48.843 I've been asking people, by the way, when's the last time you came to Trinity Community Church and heard a sermon on the Trinity? 00:24:48.843 --> 00:24:50.857 You know why? 00:24:50.857 --> 00:24:58.403 The way, why we don't typically talk about this is because there's an assumption that you all believe in that, because we obviously believe in the Trinity. 00:24:58.403 --> 00:25:04.883 But I think it's important that we just take a little bit of time and look at the Trinity and understand a little bit more about what it is. 00:25:06.115 --> 00:25:11.986 Let's go back to our core verses in John 14, verse 25 through 26. 00:25:11.986 --> 00:25:16.443 He says these things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 00:25:16.443 --> 00:25:19.205 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send me in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that. 00:25:19.205 --> 00:25:19.790 I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 00:25:19.790 --> 00:25:24.163 But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send me in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 00:25:24.163 --> 00:25:37.726 So, literally, in this very short two verses in this chapter of John, we see the Trinity identified, clearly identified, and these are the words coming directly from Jesus himself. 00:25:37.726 --> 00:25:43.280 And since God, the Holy Spirit, is part of the Trinity, we need to at least take a high level. 00:25:43.280 --> 00:25:44.464 Look at what this doctrine is. 00:25:44.575 --> 00:25:49.126 Now let me just stop for a minute and let's talk about this. 00:25:49.126 --> 00:26:02.346 You're not going to get me to stand up here and say I'm going to explain the Trinity to you in a way that you will have no other questions ever about the Trinity and you can take this to the bank and post it on social media. 00:26:02.346 --> 00:26:12.945 I'm not going to do that and you want to know why I wrote down here before we go any further. 00:26:12.945 --> 00:26:22.789 I want to identify right up front that defining the Trinity is not an exercise that ends with a conclusive and definitive summation that fully and completely defines the Trinity. 00:26:22.789 --> 00:26:33.467 At best, we're attempting to define God, which, by the nature of who God is and who we are, is an exercise in the impossible. 00:26:33.467 --> 00:26:47.021 Point number three no, billy Graham, a great evangelist, said this about the Holy Spirit, and I love this quote God the Father is fully God. 00:26:47.021 --> 00:26:49.142 God the Son is fully God. 00:26:49.142 --> 00:26:51.462 God the Holy Spirit is fully God. 00:26:52.234 --> 00:26:53.882 The Bible presents this as a fact. 00:26:53.882 --> 00:26:56.442 It does not explain it. 00:26:56.442 --> 00:27:06.289 It does not explain it. 00:27:06.289 --> 00:27:13.340 It doesn't explain it, not in a way we can understand. 00:27:13.361 --> 00:27:16.505 Rc Sproul said in a lecture on the Trinity one time. 00:27:16.505 --> 00:27:21.651 He said what God reveals, although not something we can always understand, is never contradictory. 00:27:21.651 --> 00:27:27.874 And you will find that the Trinity is a stumbling block for many people who are not believers. 00:27:27.874 --> 00:27:28.055 Why? 00:27:28.055 --> 00:27:30.301 Because they can't understand it. 00:27:30.301 --> 00:27:36.202 They can't understand it and you can't give them a definition that puts it in the box that they want to put it in. 00:27:36.202 --> 00:27:54.484 The fact that you can stand here and say amen and not get all bent out of shape, that I'm not going to be able to give you a definition that you can take to the bank, shows me that you are imbued with the Holy Spirit, because otherwise you'd go crazy and you would reject it outright. 00:27:54.484 --> 00:28:06.207 It's interesting when people come to you and they want to quote, discuss god, and you can never give them a definition that will make them happy. 00:28:06.207 --> 00:28:16.791 It's important for us to grasp and some believe that, of course, describing trinity the three in persons is really contradictory, but it's not. 00:28:17.192 --> 00:28:18.135 And I've got one last quote. 00:28:18.135 --> 00:28:23.407 This one's a little longer, but this one really hits to the point, and this is by a guy named Louis Burkoff. 00:28:23.407 --> 00:28:33.019 Now, louis Burkoff was a theologian, a Danish-American theologian, who really dedicated most of his life to studying systematic theology. 00:28:33.019 --> 00:28:38.028 He's kind of like the Wayne Grudem of the late 19th century. 00:28:38.028 --> 00:28:42.116 This is what he says. 00:28:42.116 --> 00:28:44.242 We're going to go through this a little slow, because I think it's just so spot on. 00:28:44.262 --> 00:28:45.688 The Trinity is a mystery. 00:28:45.688 --> 00:28:50.078 Man cannot comprehend it and make it intelligible. 00:28:50.078 --> 00:29:00.435 It is intelligible in some of its relations and modes of manifestation, and that's what we're going to talk about today but unintelligible in its essential nature. 00:29:00.435 --> 00:29:20.527 The real difficulty lies in the relation in which the persons of the Godhead stand to the divine essence and to one another, and this is a difficulty which the church cannot remove, and we're going to talk a little bit more about that, because it's impossible. 00:29:20.527 --> 00:29:29.820 It's just something that's there we have to deal with, but only tried to reduce to its proper proportion by a proper definition of terms, and that's what we're going to do today. 00:29:29.820 --> 00:29:31.257 It has. 00:29:31.257 --> 00:29:41.825 It being a church has never tried to explain the mystery of the Trinity, but only sought to formulate the doctrine of the Trinity in such a manner that the errors which endangered it were warded off. 00:29:41.825 --> 00:29:45.064 Now, what is important to note? 00:29:45.064 --> 00:29:45.887 That last part. 00:29:45.968 --> 00:30:02.459 If you go back into church history, you will understand that there was an attack, and has been almost from the beginning, against God being a triune God, and so people who don't believe in the Trinity will say well, you know, the word Trinity is not in the Bible. 00:30:02.459 --> 00:30:03.821 Duh, yeah, we know that. 00:30:03.821 --> 00:30:06.415 All you know is a doctrine that was added later. 00:30:06.415 --> 00:30:08.501 No, it wasn't a doctrine that was added later. 00:30:08.501 --> 00:30:12.461 It was a name that was given to the study of God as a triune being. 00:30:12.461 --> 00:30:22.901 That's what it was, and you will find long articles attacking the Trinity, saying it's some kind of doctrine that got seeped in and just slipped into the church. 00:30:22.901 --> 00:30:25.489 No, it was literally. 00:30:25.489 --> 00:30:35.763 The reason the whole doctrine of the Trinity was set was again to address the errors and the blasphemy. 00:30:35.763 --> 00:30:38.047 Basically, basically, that was coming into the church. 00:30:38.047 --> 00:30:42.551 That's why the Trinity and the concept of the Trinity was coined. 00:30:44.157 --> 00:30:51.346 Now, the challenge we have in defining anything is the reliance that we typically have upon a frame of reference. 00:30:51.346 --> 00:30:54.241 Okay, so let's talk a little bit about this. 00:30:54.241 --> 00:30:57.434 Remember, I told you that we understand God the Father because we've had fathers. 00:30:57.434 --> 00:31:00.340 We understand God the Son because we maybe had children. 00:31:00.340 --> 00:31:03.736 But God the Holy Spirit we've never had a Holy Spirit in our life, have we? 00:31:03.736 --> 00:31:06.480 Okay, not in the physical right. 00:31:07.863 --> 00:31:21.817 You know, my wife and I, when we were between our sophomore and junior years, we went to college in East Texas, a little college in a little town in Big Sandy, texas, and then between our sophomore and junior years, we drove. 00:31:21.817 --> 00:31:24.263 There was about six or seven of us with three cars. 00:31:24.263 --> 00:31:30.406 We drove all the way to California where the church's headquarters was, and we finished our last two years there. 00:31:30.406 --> 00:31:35.046 On that drive, all of us decided we were going to stop and see the Grand Canyon. 00:31:35.046 --> 00:31:38.239 Okay, now you're going to understand. 00:31:38.239 --> 00:31:43.970 I grew up as this Canadian plains boy on the plains of Saskatchewan. 00:31:43.970 --> 00:31:50.008 Everything was flat and any kind of little gorge we had was you could almost jump across it. 00:31:50.008 --> 00:31:57.561 When we walked up to the rim of the Grand Canyon, it literally took my breath away and I remember sitting there just going. 00:31:57.561 --> 00:32:03.414 It literally took my breath away and I remember sitting there just going. 00:32:06.276 --> 00:32:07.759 I was looking for a frame of reference and I couldn't find one. 00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:10.886 You know, the average width of the Grand Canyon is 10 miles wide. 00:32:10.886 --> 00:32:13.617 That's the average. 00:32:13.617 --> 00:32:25.799 And what's so amazing about that is you try to find a frame of reference, like you look over the edge and you look, and you look and say, see those people, that's people down there. 00:32:25.799 --> 00:32:31.085 They're little specks down there, and then you try to use that as a frame of reference, but you can't. 00:32:31.085 --> 00:32:34.343 Well, that's the same thing with the Trinity. 00:32:34.343 --> 00:32:37.318 There's no frame of reference to understand this. 00:32:37.318 --> 00:32:42.169 And we're going to talk a little bit about some things and the model that I'm going to put up here on the screen a little bit later. 00:32:42.169 --> 00:32:48.883 It's just a model, to show an attempt at it, but it's never going to fully answer it. 00:32:49.223 --> 00:32:50.747 But let me just say the good news about this. 00:32:50.747 --> 00:32:57.224 The good news is that God has revealed to us enough so that we can have a relationship with each member of the Trinity. 00:32:57.224 --> 00:32:59.160 That's the beautiful part. 00:32:59.160 --> 00:33:06.848 So, with that in the background, let's go in to talk about, let's get a definition of God as a Trinity. 00:33:06.848 --> 00:33:20.669 Well, wayne Grudem in his book Systematic Theology says this God externally exists as three persons Father, son and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God and there is only one God. 00:33:25.976 --> 00:33:28.503 Now we're given hints to the Trinity in the Old Testament. 00:33:28.503 --> 00:33:32.299 By the way, all you got to do is turn to Genesis, chapter 1. 00:33:32.299 --> 00:33:40.227 Genesis 1, verse 26, says Then God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness. 00:33:40.227 --> 00:33:47.561 God was not schizophrenic, he was talking to somebody. 00:33:47.561 --> 00:33:57.489 And the word, by the way, for God there is Elohim, which is used as a masculine noun, but it's a plural noun. 00:33:57.489 --> 00:33:59.961 So right away, we have tips again, right this time, from Hebrew grammar, that it's a plural noun. 00:33:59.961 --> 00:34:16.422 So right away, we have tips again, right this time, from Hebrew grammar, that God is a plural God and we're given hints about things like that If you keep going like in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 63, 10, isaiah is talking to God's people and he makes this statement. 00:34:16.815 --> 00:34:20.795 He says that God's people have rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. 00:34:20.795 --> 00:34:25.128 Hmm, again, grieving the Holy Spirit. 00:34:25.128 --> 00:34:32.224 I really believe that's one of the reasons why Paul used it in his reference in Corinthians, because they would have been familiar with that. 00:34:32.224 --> 00:34:37.362 And again, because of time, believe me, I had lots of research on this. 00:34:37.362 --> 00:34:39.478 I could have gone into a lot, but just for time I can't go. 00:34:39.478 --> 00:34:43.637 But if you want to go any deeper in this, believe me, there's plenty of resources that we can talk about. 00:34:44.418 --> 00:34:53.221 But, moving to the New Testament, we get a real clear picture of the Trinity Scripture's, just like the one we read in John 14. 00:34:53.221 --> 00:35:04.800 One of the clearest descriptions of the Holy Spirit as part of the Trinity is found when Jesus was baptized, in Luke 3, 21 through 22,. 00:35:04.800 --> 00:35:06.884 It says it so beautifully. 00:35:06.884 --> 00:35:24.704 Now, when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended down on him in bodily form, like a dove, and a voice came from heaven and said you are my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. 00:35:24.704 --> 00:35:33.606 What's so great about this is you literally see all three of the Trinity interacting together in one single event. 00:35:33.606 --> 00:35:40.027 Jesus is there, the Holy Spirit's coming down, manifesting as a dove, and God the Father is speaking. 00:35:40.027 --> 00:35:41.188 It all happened together coming down, manifesting as a dove, and God the Father is speaking. 00:35:41.188 --> 00:35:44.260 It all happened together at one time and people saw it. 00:35:44.260 --> 00:35:45.900 They saw it. 00:35:45.900 --> 00:35:49.523 That's why the person who wrote this they saw it. 00:35:49.523 --> 00:35:55.643 They're just saying this is what we saw, all of them together. 00:35:57.215 --> 00:36:10.000 We also see Jesus talking about the Trinity in the Great Commission, the Great Commission, the drumbeat which all of you and I, all of us, are walking forward with in that Great Commission, in Matthew 28. 00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:26.606 He gives them the instructions about making converts and he talks about baptism and he says in verse 19, go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Together, father, son and Holy Spirit All three. 00:36:26.606 --> 00:36:38.909 I'll tell you what really is powerful as you turn to the first chapter in the Gospel of John, verse 1. 00:36:38.909 --> 00:36:45.728 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. 00:36:45.728 --> 00:36:54.626 Can you understand that if the Holy Spirit hasn't opened your mind? 00:36:54.626 --> 00:36:56.978 Do you understand how crazy this sounds. 00:36:56.978 --> 00:37:06.764 I'm going to tell you right now, if you are understanding this, he's inside of you already. 00:37:06.764 --> 00:37:10.161 He's already working in you. 00:37:10.161 --> 00:37:19.822 If you haven't given your life to Jesus, just hang on, because he's going to get you, because if you're understanding this, he's already inside of you. 00:37:19.822 --> 00:37:21.927 It's beautiful. 00:37:21.927 --> 00:37:22.969 It's just so powerful. 00:37:25.356 --> 00:37:31.320 So there've been many attempts to explain the concept of the Trinity and, by the way, well-meaning attempts, and I think this is good. 00:37:31.320 --> 00:37:33.766 Some of them have been a little off. 00:37:33.766 --> 00:37:35.860 Most of them fall short. 00:37:35.860 --> 00:37:37.871 I heard one said one plus one plus one equals one. 00:37:37.871 --> 00:37:38.375 Most of them fall short. 00:37:38.375 --> 00:37:42.835 I heard one said one plus one plus one equals one. 00:37:42.835 --> 00:37:46.007 That's bad math. 00:37:46.007 --> 00:37:50.059 It's not accurate. 00:37:50.079 --> 00:37:52.422 I was talking to John and Debbie the other day. 00:37:52.422 --> 00:38:01.474 We were talking about one of the metaphors they had heard was that God is like Trinity is like water, right H2O. 00:38:01.474 --> 00:38:04.682 Because water can be manifest as a vapor, right Steam. 00:38:04.682 --> 00:38:10.795 It can be manifest as a liquid water or as a solid, and that's a pretty good attempt. 00:38:10.795 --> 00:38:12.820 But why does it fall short? 00:38:12.820 --> 00:38:17.458 Because water H2O can only been in one of those states at any one time. 00:38:17.458 --> 00:38:22.943 You see, all metaphors fall short and it's okay that we attempt to understand it. 00:38:22.943 --> 00:38:30.389 Just don't get too wrapped up in that metaphor, because it's going to fall short, and that's okay. 00:38:30.389 --> 00:38:33.704 So let's start with some statements that we know are true, based upon Scripture. 00:38:33.704 --> 00:38:35.159 God is three persons. 00:38:35.159 --> 00:38:40.039 We've identified that Each person is fully God and there's only one God. 00:38:40.963 --> 00:38:50.237 Okay, now I want to show one graphic of the Holy Spirit that somebody's used, which again falls short, but I think is pretty interesting. 00:38:50.237 --> 00:38:59.865 So you see, here in this you have the triangle, which, by the way, my wife was it something you read, honey, about the triangle? 00:38:59.865 --> 00:39:10.362 Yeah, and she said it's interesting Do you know that the triangle is the strongest geometrical shape that there is? 00:39:10.362 --> 00:39:14.068 There's no other shape that's stronger, stronger than an arch. 00:39:14.068 --> 00:39:16.918 And I think about it. 00:39:16.918 --> 00:39:18.380 I think, yeah, that's interesting. 00:39:18.380 --> 00:39:24.423 That might just be God, right, but in this one you see that God's in the middle. 00:39:24.423 --> 00:39:32.701 It says the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, but the Father is not the Son, the Father is not the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not the Father. 00:39:32.701 --> 00:39:38.840 Here's the problem with this graphic, if you haven't already seen it, it has them separate. 00:39:38.840 --> 00:39:42.376 You see, they're all really together. 00:39:42.376 --> 00:39:50.938 So it's an attempt, and that's why we don't get too wrapped up in this and I just want to encourage you don't ever come to somebody and say, I got the Holy Spirit figured out, I'll explain it to you. 00:39:50.938 --> 00:39:53.289 It doesn't mean you can't talk about him. 00:39:53.289 --> 00:39:54.695 And here's what's really cool. 00:39:55.257 --> 00:40:02.590 The way we can help understand the persons of the Holy Spirit is in their functions and then their roles. 00:40:02.590 --> 00:40:26.103 That's really where God reveals us some truth about the Holy Spirit, because you have to understand in this oneness, the Holy Spirit, god, the Father, god, the Son, they're all omnipotent, they're all omnipresent, they're all omniscient, they're all eternal, they're all omnipotent, they're all omnipresent, they're all omniscient, they're all eternal, they're all self-sufficient. 00:40:26.103 --> 00:40:32.244 Each person of the Trinity is holy, good, gracious. 00:40:32.244 --> 00:40:39.347 Just when you read the gifts of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5, or, excuse me, the fruits of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5? 00:40:39.347 --> 00:40:40.594 Or, excuse me, the fruits of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5? 00:40:40.594 --> 00:40:46.706 That's describing God, that's describing Jesus, because they're one, okay. 00:40:47.536 --> 00:40:52.858 So we have to make sure that we understand that when the Holy Spirit speaks, god is speaking. 00:40:52.858 --> 00:41:00.592 Okay, when Jesus says you know, when we talk about Christ in me, what is Christ in me? 00:41:00.592 --> 00:41:02.666 It's the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 00:41:02.666 --> 00:41:03.909 That's who Christ in me is. 00:41:03.909 --> 00:41:23.903 It's beautiful, but the functions are where we see some differences, not differences that divide, though you have to understand these aren't differences that divide, these are just differences in functions that divide. 00:41:23.903 --> 00:41:27.293