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Trinity Community Church
Trinity Community Church
Encounter - The Person of the Holy Spirit
Join Pastor Scott Wiens in our “Encounter” series as he explores “The Person of the Holy Spirit,” offering transformative insights into the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives. Scott delves into the profound promises Jesus made in the Gospel of John, focusing on passages like John 14:15-24 and John 16:5-15, to shed light on the often misunderstood nature of the Holy Spirit.
Scott begins by examining Jesus’ discourse during the Last Supper, where He promises to send the Helper—the Spirit of Truth—to dwell within believers. This promise assures us that we are never alone; the Holy Spirit is our constant companion, guiding us into all truth and reminding us of Jesus’ teachings.
A central theme Scott addresses is whether the Holy Spirit is a person or merely a force. Challenging common misconceptions, he explains that the Holy Spirit is indeed a person, just like Jesus. By exploring the Greek term “allos,” meaning “another exactly like the other,” Scott emphasizes that understanding the Holy Spirit’s personhood deepens our relationship with Him.
Scott also tackles the profound mystery of the Trinity. He explains how God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit coexist as one God in three persons, each fully God yet distinct in their roles. Using relatable analogies and scriptural references, he helps us grasp this complex concept, emphasizing the harmonious functions of the Trinity in the context of redemption.
Furthermore, Scott discusses the primary purposes the Holy Spirit serves in a Christian’s life. The Holy Spirit reveals truth to us, leading to a deeper understanding of God’s Word and will. He empowers us to overcome sin, live in freedom, and glorify God through our actions. By surrendering to the Holy Spirit, we experience inner transformation and a renewed sense of purpose.
Throughout the sermon, Scott shares personal reflections and theological insights, encouraging us to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit’s guidance. He urges us to engage in prayer and be receptive to the Spirit’s gifts, fostering continued spiritual growth and empowerment.
Don’t miss this enlightening message that could profoundly impact your spiritual journey. Embrace the Holy Spirit’s transformative power and discover how a deeper relationship with Him can change your life.
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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. 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. And jesus says some really powerful things to the disciples during this discourse and John captures them very, very powerfully. So we're going to turn to John 14 to begin with, and we're going to start in verse 15. 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. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you Verse 18. I will not leave you as orphans. 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. You also will live In that day. You will know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you. 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. That's powerful stuff, verse 24. While I am still with you. 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.
Scott Wiens:Now, flip over a couple of pages. If you're using an actual physical Bible, go to John 16 and we're gonna pick up in verse five. Jesus continues on, but now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asked me where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 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. 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. Concerning sin because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. Concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged Verse 12,. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 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. All that the father has is mine. Therefore, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Scott Wiens:There is probably no more misunderstood member of the triune God than the Holy Spirit. 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. 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. But God the Holy Spirit, it's a little more difficult, and the reason is we really have no frame of reference for that. You know, I don't know if you've noticed, but God's doing something pretty special here recently. It seems like ever since we came back to one service. God just seems to be moving here. The Spirit is moving here. 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. Well, I know what it was From the first note that they hit. I just felt this power just hit me. The worship just seems to be anointed even more. People seem to be moved. More People are sharing scriptures in almost a prophetic way. People are sharing words of encouragement. 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. That's the Holy Spirit and he's moving.
Scott Wiens:A couple months ago, tyler came to us at the elders meeting and he said that you know he identified this. Of course we all saw it and knew it. He said that you know he identified this. Of course we all saw it and knew it. 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. 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. And so we decided to preach that series on the Holy Spirit, and I'm kicking it off today. But this is all to equip us.
Scott Wiens: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? Can we be real together here for just a moment? 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? By the way, that was a nail-biter last night that Tennessee game. 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. It influenced them. I mean parents who taught their kids you are a Vols fan and you will not be anybody else, right? We're influenced by our environment and we're influenced by the teachings that we sit under.
Scott Wiens:And, by the way, filters can be good when it comes to the, when it comes to truth, it can be very good. In fact, we're supposed to build filters of good doctrine and understanding that. But, if you're honest with yourself, sometimes our filters can be a little bit tainted and they need adjustment. 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. 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?
Scott Wiens: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. Are we willing to take a fresh look at the doctrine of the Holy Spirit or do you think you got it figured out? You think you got him all figured out? 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. 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. Let's just recreate the whole filter again, which is kind of what I had to do.
Scott Wiens:This is a challenge that I think we should go into any sermon series, anytime we open up the Bible. We should do this. But I'm just going to ask you to challenge yourself that way. It's hard to be objective when it comes to those filters, but it's something that's important. 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. I can't wait for the other messages to come on this.
Scott Wiens: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. The first is the Holy Spirit as a person. 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. So that's what we're going to do today. So let's dive straight in the Holy Spirit as a person. Well, let me just start with this Is the Holy Spirit a person or is he a force? 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.
Scott Wiens: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. And you might say, well, why is that so important? Well, it's really important. 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. 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. He was just a force. And it changed. My life changed when I embraced the concept that the truth, that the Holy Spirit was a person. Now we're going to go back to John 14, and we're going to start unpacking this. We get to realize the audience that Jesus was talking to. He's talking to the disciples. Does anybody know what religion the disciples were? Judaism, yeah, exactly. 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.
Scott Wiens:They had a monotheistic religion. They believed in one God. In fact, almost all the other gods and all the other nations, excuse me had multiple gods. It was a differentiator. And can you understand now why the Pharisees got their nose so out of joint anytime Jesus talked about him being God Blasphemy. They would say that's blasphemy why? Because their whole religion was based upon monotheism and monotheism again. Monotheism and monotheism again is simply belief that there's only one God. 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.
Scott Wiens: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. Now listen carefully to what he says. And I Jesus will ask the Father, god the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you. Even see Jesus introducing the disciples to the Holy Spirit, using language that is personification Right from the beginning. And there's a word in here that you might go over too quickly that really is pivotal in understanding this. That word is another Another In verse 16, he says and I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper. Now we automatically just go to the word helper a lot of times. Okay, but that word another is so key because Jesus is telling them that he's leaving and another is coming in his place. And you know that word another is interesting. That Greek word is alos, and it can mean one of two things. It can mean either another that is different or another that is exactly alike. Guess which one is used here? Exactly alike, exactly alike, not a different flavor, not a different shape, not a different color, exactly alike.
Scott Wiens: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. And verse 18 reemphasizes this personhood of the Holy Spirit when he says I will not leave you, orphans, I will come to you. Wait a second. You're contradicting yourself, jesus. You're telling us you're leaving, but then you're saying you're going to come and dwell in us. Why didn't he say and the Holy Spirit will come to you? He says I will come to you. Do you see how he's using them, himself and the Holy Spirit, in the same breath, for the same function? It wasn't something different. The Holy Spirit is Jesus. Jesus is the Holy Spirit, and sometimes it's difficult for us to understand that concept. My next point's on the Trinity. We're really going to get into that, but it's important that you understand he is a person.
Scott Wiens:Another revealing truth that is apparent if we look at this passage of Scripture is the use of the pronoun he, he. You know he is a masculine pronoun in Greek and it's eikinos, which is applied directly to the Holy Spirit. It's a masculine pronoun and, by the way, in Greek grammar the word spirit is typically accompanied by the neuter noun. Okay, neither male nor female, it's neuter eikineo. 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. They are assigning it with that pronoun and that's important to understand. By the way, if anybody says, well, that's just twisting of that. This is the audacity that my old church had and it just bugs me when I think about it. I'm getting a little bit ahead of my notes. 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. Oh, the audacity of that. I just think about it now. I just think why, why did I believe that? Well, that's why we have to have our filters tweaked right Now.
Scott Wiens:I want to just quickly address this word helper, paraclete. We use the ESV right Most of the time we preach at the ESV and it's interpreted as helper. In some translations it's actually. The word is counselor, is put in place. Some it's advocate, advocate. And you might ask well, why didn't they just get one? Why isn't it the same word? I'll tell you why Because there's no English word that really describes this word helper or paraclete. I should say Helper, advocate, whatever the reality is. 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. 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. 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. No, it's all of that. That's why we study it a little bit into these languages to help us understand Truly. Every one of those describes the Holy Spirit.
Scott Wiens:Now, if you recall my introduction, I challenged all of us to see past, or maybe our current filters on this. 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. It was a seminary. Basically the only degree we could get when we were there was theology. So I sat in every type of theology class you would expect. You know the epistles of Paul, the general epistles, the life and teachings of Jesus Christ who went through, the gospels, all that stuff. I sat in all of those. 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.
Scott Wiens:And then we all bought repudiograph pens. How many people know what a repudiograph pen is? Oh good, believe me, it was just fun to say repudiograph because it made you sound smart. It literally is a pen that won't bleed through flax paper. Yeah, you might look them up. 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. See, you did learn something today. This is really good. 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.
Scott Wiens:And so I want to show you a picture of my Bible, my New King James Bible. Now, this is pretty interesting, you'll notice. This is in verse 17,. Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he dwells in you and will be with you. Now you can see I've kind of scratched out what I wrote in there before. This was after my eyes got open and I scratched it out. I was mad. It says should all be it. I literally wrote that in there. You see, I was taught that the Holy Spirit was the power of God, not God. 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. All the hours of rapidi-ref pen work gone. I keep that Bible to remind myself of what truth is and how far God has taken me. I am so, so grateful for that.
Scott Wiens: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. 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. References that talk about the Holy Spirit in terms of a person, and I'm going to go through these rather quickly. The Holy Spirit teaches us. John 14, 26,. But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things. We've already talked about this he will teach you all things. He's a teacher.
Scott Wiens:Romans 8, 15,. The Holy Spirit leads us, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Okay, did you know the Holy Spirit prays for us? Let's go back to Romans 8, verse 26. 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.
Scott Wiens: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. Do you know that the Holy Spirit has the capability to give gifts? Give gifts. 1 Corinthians 12,. Romans 12,. Ephesians 4,. All of those list gifts specifically coming from the Holy Spirit. Did you know the Holy Spirit can hang out with you, he can fellowship with you? 2 Corinthians 3, 14,. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.
Scott Wiens:Trinity, right there, clearly identifies that the Holy Spirit is the one. The Holy Spirit be with you. Trinity, right there, clearly identifies that the Holy Spirit is the one that's going to fellowship with you. All these scriptures are assigning personal attributes to the Holy Spirit. You can't grieve an inanimate force. You can't fellowship with an inanimate force.
Scott Wiens:Sometimes I wonder if Star Wars was influenced by Satan Boy. Somebody's going to kill me for that one. But think about it. The force, right, the force, but this force. That's the way we explained it. That's the way me as a kid, because I was a kid when Star Wars came out. That's the way I kind of explained it. It's a force, it's not Force. Doesn't pray for you. All right.
Scott Wiens:Point number two the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity. In order to understand the Holy Spirit, we cannot look at him outside of the concept of the Trinity. 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? You know why? 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. 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.
Scott Wiens:Let's go back to our core verses in John 14, verse 25 through 26. He says these things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 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 spoken to you while I am still with you. 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. 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. And since God, the Holy Spirit, is part of the Trinity, we need to at least take a high level. Look at what this doctrine is.
Scott Wiens:Now let me just stop for a minute and let's talk about this. 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. I'm not going to do that and you want to know why I wrote down here before we go any further. 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. 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. 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. God the Son is fully God. God the Holy Spirit is fully God.
Scott Wiens:The Bible presents this as a fact. It does not explain it. It does not explain it. It doesn't explain it, not in a way we can understand.
Scott Wiens:Rc Sproul said in a lecture on the Trinity one time. He said what God reveals, although not something we can always understand, is never contradictory. And you will find that the Trinity is a stumbling block for many people who are not believers. Why? Because they can't understand it. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Scott Wiens:And I've got one last quote. This one's a little longer, but this one really hits to the point, and this is by a guy named Louis Burkoff. Now, louis Burkoff was a theologian, a Danish-American theologian, who really dedicated most of his life to studying systematic theology. He's kind of like the Wayne Grudem of the late 19th century. This is what he says. We're going to go through this a little slow, because I think it's just so spot on.
Scott Wiens:The Trinity is a mystery. Man cannot comprehend it and make it intelligible. 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. 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. 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. It has. 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. Now, what is important to note? That last part.
Scott Wiens: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. Duh, yeah, we know that. All you know is a doctrine that was added later. No, it wasn't a doctrine that was added later. It was a name that was given to the study of God as a triune being. 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. No, it was literally. The reason the whole doctrine of the Trinity was set was again to address the errors and the blasphemy. Basically, basically, that was coming into the church. That's why the Trinity and the concept of the Trinity was coined.
Scott Wiens:Now, the challenge we have in defining anything is the reliance that we typically have upon a frame of reference. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about this. Remember, I told you that we understand God the Father because we've had fathers. We understand God the Son because we maybe had children. But God the Holy Spirit we've never had a Holy Spirit in our life, have we? Okay, not in the physical right.
Scott Wiens: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. There was about six or seven of us with three cars. We drove all the way to California where the church's headquarters was, and we finished our last two years there. On that drive, all of us decided we were going to stop and see the Grand Canyon. Okay, now you're going to understand. I grew up as this Canadian plains boy on the plains of Saskatchewan. Everything was flat and any kind of little gorge we had was you could almost jump across it. When we walked up to the rim of the Grand Canyon, it literally took my breath away and I remember sitting there just going. It literally took my breath away and I remember sitting there just going.
Scott Wiens:I was looking for a frame of reference and I couldn't find one. You know, the average width of the Grand Canyon is 10 miles wide. That's the average. 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. They're little specks down there, and then you try to use that as a frame of reference, but you can't. Well, that's the same thing with the Trinity. There's no frame of reference to understand this. 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. It's just a model, to show an attempt at it, but it's never going to fully answer it.
Scott Wiens:But let me just say the good news about this. The good news is that God has revealed to us enough so that we can have a relationship with each member of the Trinity. That's the beautiful part. So, with that in the background, let's go in to talk about, let's get a definition of God as a Trinity. 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.
Scott Wiens:Now we're given hints to the Trinity in the Old Testament. By the way, all you got to do is turn to Genesis, chapter 1. Genesis 1, verse 26, says Then God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness. God was not schizophrenic, he was talking to somebody. And the word, by the way, for God there is Elohim, which is used as a masculine noun, but it's a plural noun. So right away, we have tips again, right this time, from Hebrew grammar, that it's a plural noun. 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.
Scott Wiens:He says that God's people have rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. Hmm, again, grieving the Holy Spirit. 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. And again, because of time, believe me, I had lots of research on this. I could have gone into a lot, but just for time I can't go. But if you want to go any deeper in this, believe me, there's plenty of resources that we can talk about.
Scott Wiens: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. 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,. It says it so beautifully. 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. What's so great about this is you literally see all three of the Trinity interacting together in one single event. Jesus is there, the Holy Spirit's coming down, manifesting as a dove, and God the Father is speaking. It all happened together coming down, manifesting as a dove, and God the Father is speaking. It all happened together at one time and people saw it. They saw it. That's why the person who wrote this they saw it. They're just saying this is what we saw, all of them together.
Scott Wiens: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. 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. I'll tell you what really is powerful as you turn to the first chapter in the Gospel of John, verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Can you understand that if the Holy Spirit hasn't opened your mind? Do you understand how crazy this sounds. I'm going to tell you right now, if you are understanding this, he's inside of you already. He's already working in you. 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. It's beautiful. It's just so powerful.
Scott Wiens: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. Some of them have been a little off. Most of them fall short. I heard one said one plus one plus one equals one. Most of them fall short. I heard one said one plus one plus one equals one. That's bad math. It's not accurate.
Scott Wiens:I was talking to John and Debbie the other day. We were talking about one of the metaphors they had heard was that God is like Trinity is like water, right H2O. Because water can be manifest as a vapor, right Steam. It can be manifest as a liquid water or as a solid, and that's a pretty good attempt. But why does it fall short? Because water H2O can only been in one of those states at any one time. You see, all metaphors fall short and it's okay that we attempt to understand it. Just don't get too wrapped up in that metaphor, because it's going to fall short, and that's okay. So let's start with some statements that we know are true, based upon Scripture. God is three persons. We've identified that Each person is fully God and there's only one God.
Scott Wiens: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. 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? Yeah, and she said it's interesting Do you know that the triangle is the strongest geometrical shape that there is? There's no other shape that's stronger, stronger than an arch. And I think about it. I think, yeah, that's interesting. That might just be God, right, but in this one you see that God's in the middle. 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. Here's the problem with this graphic, if you haven't already seen it, it has them separate. You see, they're all really together. 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. It doesn't mean you can't talk about him. And here's what's really cool.
Scott Wiens:The way we can help understand the persons of the Holy Spirit is in their functions and then their roles. 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. Each person of the Trinity is holy, good, gracious. 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? Or, excuse me, the fruits of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5? That's describing God, that's describing Jesus, because they're one, okay.
Scott Wiens:So we have to make sure that we understand that when the Holy Spirit speaks, god is speaking. Okay, when Jesus says you know, when we talk about Christ in me, what is Christ in me? It's the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That's who Christ in me is. 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. These are just differences in functions, especially when you think about the redemption of mankind.
Scott Wiens:You know, god, the Father, has put in place the plan for redemption of mankind. First, john 4, verse 14. I don't have the scripture up there, but you can write it down he put in place the redemption for mankind. It even says, of course, john 3, 16, we all know for God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, god. The son came into the world at the command of God to live a perfect life and pay the penalty for our sins, so that God could redeem us. And God the Holy Spirit indwells us to open our eyes to sin, our need for a Savior and, of course, then repentance and then to empower us to follow and obey and to bring new spiritual life. They have different roles and functions and, by the way, the roles, it seems like Scripture does give us insight in the fact that God the Son, god the Father and God the Holy Spirit are equal in deity, but they are also subordinate in their roles.
Scott Wiens:In 1 Corinthians 15, paul clearly lays this out and it's really beautiful if you look at this. Let's go to that scripture, 1 Corinthians 15, 26. The last enemy to be destroyed is death, for God has put all things in subjection under his feet. That's Jesus, by the way. But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he, god, the Father, is accepted. Who put all things in subjection under him? I'm going to read the NLT because it's a little clearer after this. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him. Who put all things in subjection under him? And God may be. All in all, I love the ESV, but the ESV gets really literal sometimes and this is why it's good sometimes to punt and go to the New Living Translation.
Scott Wiens:And the New Living Translation says this and the last enemy to be destroyed is death. For the scriptures say, quote God has put all things under his authority. Then in brackets it says of course, when it says all things are under his authority, that does not include God himself, who gave Christ his authority, but that's what he was saying in the ESV God gave Christ that authority. Then, when all things are under his authority, the son will put himself under God's authority so that God, who gave his son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything. Everywhere. You see a humble attitude between God the Father and God the Son.
Scott Wiens:Humble sounds strange, but you understand. There's this unity that you cannot break apart. Humble sounds strange, but you understand, there's this unity that you cannot break apart. It's beautiful in how Scripture tells us about this oneness. Add to this we've already read, in course, john 14, 15, where Jesus said in two different places that God the Father and then Jesus, both will send the helper, the Holy Spirit. You see that there's the ability to direct and guide. But again, you got to understand. They're the same in deity, the same in power, but there are subordinate roles that scripture indicates clearly. Don't get the idea and don't start laying over top of our Western society where here's your boss and here's you, and your boss sends you and you don't have that. You've got the same power In this case. They're all God, but they are subordinate in roles.
Scott Wiens:Okay, last point, point number three what's the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit? So thus far we've talked about the fact that the Holy Spirit is indeed a person. We've talked about the Holy Spirit as part of the Trinity that exists in internal relationship with God the Father and God the Son, equal in deity, yet different in function and roles. So what about this final point? What is the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church and the life of the Christian? I believe there's really two primary purposes. You could preach this sermon 20 different times and have more different purposes, but these, I believe, are overarching purposes that I see that come from this scripture.
Scott Wiens:So let's go to John 16. This was the second passage of scripture. I said we were gonna teach on John 16, verses 12. Jesus continues. He says I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them. Now, when the spirit of truth comes, the Holy Spirit, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak. The first purpose of the Holy Spirit is that he guides us in truth. He guides us in truth. You realize these disciples. They spent three years with him, with Jesus, and now he's going. Remember, we even said you are sorrowful. They were afraid, which, by the way, we know they were afraid because it talks about that and what happened to them in Acts. They were afraid which, by the way, we know. They were afraid because it talks about that and what happened to them in Acts. They were huddling together in an upper room somewhere. Some went fishing. You know these guys were freaked out, but the spirit of truth came on them that day in that upper room and they changed, they transformed.
Scott Wiens:Truth comes through the Holy Spirit. The fact again, as I said before, that you can understand anything that I'm saying, that it's making sense to you, means the Holy Spirit's in you and he's doing a work in you right now, right now. How many times have we just thanked God for the fact that he opened our eyes? Man, there's so much to be thankful for. You would not like Scott Weems without God or without the Holy Spirit. I can guarantee you Nothing good in me. Without the Holy Spirit in us, we would not know truth and we'd be under the penalty of sin. He is the one who spiritually resurrects us and reveals God to us, and we know that God is truth. And once truth is revealed to us, we now have that understanding again of our need for a savior, the need for repentance Repentance, by the way, repentance. If you don't have repentance as part of the gospel, you're missing something Throughout our lives. He leads us in truth.
Scott Wiens:The second purpose of the Holy Spirit can be found in Romans 8. And, by the way, if you just want to be edified as to who the Holy Spirit is and the beautiful things he does, just go to Romans 8 and read it. Romans 8 is so laden with truth about the Holy Spirit. Romans 8, 13 says For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. Amen, maybe you tried it, but if, by the spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. You know what I don't read here? I don't read any teaching about moralistic living. But if you're just a good person and you don't sin, you will live. If, by the Spirit, by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. If you try to live a moral life without the Holy Spirit, you will fall far short, and Scripture seems to indicate that there will be people like that that will do that up until the point they die and they will stand before God in the judgment Christ before the judgment and they will stand before God in the judgment, christ before the judgment, and he will say those terrible words I knew you not. You were a moral person, but you weren't mine.
Scott Wiens:We have the power of the Trinity inside. The same power it says further on in Romans 8, that placed Jesus at the right hand of God and was referenced, by the way, during the worship time. That same spirit, he is in you, he's in me, and through the power of the Holy Spirit we can experience freedom from the bondage of sin. It's a promise Satan loves to destroy, and shame is one of the most powerful ways he does it, besetting sins strongholds in our lives. He is in us and he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. That is not just a meme. That's truth. That's truth. He's stronger than that. He's stronger than that and he's in you, he's in me and as we walk forward, we just have to call on that. We just have to call on that and I know it sounds like I'm making it so simple, and he's like Scott. You have no idea what I struggle with. I just know this there is nothing that God can't forgive you from, and he promises that he will be a helper. Do not let condemnation and shame bring you down, because Jesus said although I am going, I'm ascending another that's just like me, christ in you, christ in me.
Scott Wiens:Well, so to conclude, listen, I've challenged us all today to look as objectively as we can at this scripture about the Holy Spirit. Let me just say this the next messages that we're going to go into, we're going to talk about the works of the Holy Spirit. We're going to talk about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We're going to talk about all these things and we're going to talk about the works of the Holy Spirit. We're going to talk about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We're going to talk about all these things and we're going to dig into some of these things, because the Bible gets really specific about this. I'm going to ask you to continue to carry this challenge over. Okay, don't have any idols in your life. Say well, no, that's wrong. Look at the scriptures. That's what it says. Let's be challenged on this.
Scott Wiens:And I want to say something, and it was alluded to earlier in the worship. I want to just ask those who have not given their lives over to Jesus Christ I said already that if you haven't given your life over to Jesus Christ, the fact that this is making sense to you. That means the Holy Spirit's already inside of you. You don't come up here and pray and say, god, give me your Holy Spirit because I really want it. The fact that you want him means he's already in you, because otherwise it says the world is blind. Right, so we understand that. Just realize that you're already hooked. That sounds bad, but it's a good hooking.
Scott Wiens:You want to be captured by the Holy Spirit and I'll tell you what he has for you. Uh-oh, he's going to preach health and wealth here. I'll tell you what he has for you. He has eternal life and he has the fact that now in your life you are going to live a different purpose and you are going to be transformed for the inside and those things that are strongholds in your life that you never thought you could get over. Suddenly you're going to get victories and more victories and more victories, and he's going to conform you into his image and his likeness. He's going to make you like him. You will start falling in line with what you'll want to not sin. That's what he's got ahead for you. So if you're not yet, if you haven't made that decision, and it's more than just a decision, but it starts with that. You can come forward.
Scott Wiens:We have a prayer team up here. They don't just pray for you, by the way, they'll listen to you, they'll counsel you. By the way, they happen to be led by the Holy Spirit too. That's the life he has ahead for you, an eternal life, and everything you go through now you'll have that comfort, the comforter, the advocate, the helper. He'll be with you through all of that. Will you stand with me and let's pray?
Scott Wiens:Heavenly Father, we are taught that we pray to youesus. You told us to pray to the father, so we start by saying heavenly father, god, we are humbled in your presence. We are humbled by the fact that you have promised this helper to us. We're humbled by the words that you preserved through all these thousands of years, and we're humbled by the fact that, through reasons we'll never know, you chose us and you sent your Holy Spirit into us, and he lives in us and he guides us, he advocates for us, he encourages us, he leads us, he teaches us, and that he is Christ in us, and he and you and Jesus are one Father. We're so humbled by this.
Scott Wiens:There's really not much more to say, but we just want to thank you.
Scott Wiens:We worship you for that.
Scott Wiens:Thank you, we worship you for that.
Scott Wiens:And, father, my prayer is for all of those who have yet to allow that to really sink in and to take that step forward, because, father, all they have to look forward to is a peace and comfort and a knowing that they have been forgiven, which is the most amazing thing to know, and a knowing that they have been forgiven, which is the most amazing thing to know.
Scott Wiens:So, father, I pray, as Trinity goes forward, father, that you would continue to do what you're doing. We're not going to control you, we're not going to try, we're just going to let you do what you do. And, father, I pray that, as you move, that we would be listening and hearing and that you would just activate the gifts of your Holy Spirit in our midst, when we pray to you in the mornings by ourselves, when we're driving our car, when we're talking to somebody who doesn't know you at the grocery store, or when we come here in the mornings and we worship. Father, just activate the gifts of the Holy Spirit which you promised to your believers that we can continue to be filled and empowered with all the strength and all the gifts that you want us to receive, father. We pray that, and we pray this humbly in the powerful name of Jesus, our Redeemer and our Savior, amen.
