The Person and the work of the Holy Spirit Lesson 3 start question 3
Mike Doyle · Mar 7, 2021
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 04
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926192221561

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're looking at lesson number three on the person, the work of the Holy Spirit, and we actually landed on question number three last week. So I'll just start off with asking you guys some thoughts around what are some of the distinctions and contrasts between this and previous social and cultural distinctions, meaning When it comes to the Holy Spirit, we talked about just the fact that the Old Testament perspective of how the Holy Spirit worked and the New Testament really more so Acts chapter 2 and the changes to how God's stewardship and or dispensation of how He functions with regards to the person of the Holy Spirit. So we're looking at what, talk to me a little bit about the earthly kingdom or the social distinctions of Israel, the body of Christ. Let's start with that.

Do you think there's confusion there, by and large, for the body? I would say yes because of reform covenant theology that teaches that the church is just an extension of Israel. And so the lines are not drawn of distinction very clearly in terms of the church being a totally separate entity and not an extension of Israel. And I think that's why there's so much confusion about it.

Have any of you guys been through that kind of situation? Because I can raise my hand right away and say, that's where I started was with Reformed theology. I think a lot of us do. There's so many writings and active authors that are out there communicating and kind of diluting what Israel is and where Israel is headed versus the body of Christ and it does relate largely to this issue of baptism of the Holy Spirit and the changes that are made there. Anybody else been through that? Maybe not. That's OK. Go ahead, Miles. Go for it.

No, I agree. very much where I would have come from. Just very confused on what, and not seeing any distinction between, you know, the Old Testament, New Testament, Israel church. I mean, it's just such a, it's totally confused and muddled together. And so, I mean, when you got David saying, you know, take not thy Holy Spirit from me and that kind of thing, I mean, how does that, you know, work?

Yeah. Yeah. And does it relate to us? Right. That's a good question. Does God the Father take the Holy Spirit from us? Never. That's right, Russ. Not from a believer. Totally. There's a permanent dwelling, isn't there? You know, the Holy Spirit is referred to as a comforter and advocate. Yeah.

Well, I think it's appalling to me that a lot of people, from the evangelical Christian viewpoint, think that God has rejected Israel. And he's not. I don't understand where they get that from. I think they get Romans 9, 10, and 11, which they don't understand what's really there. Right.

It's pretty obvious from Romans 9, 10, and 11 that God has not set Israel... He set Israel aside, but He's not rejected them. That's right. And we are not to take the position of Israel here on this earth. That's a really good point. Why are we not to take the position of Israel here on this earth?

Well, because they were under the law. We're under grace. We're the body of Christ. It's a different stewardship. While not, I wouldn't say less important to Him, we, by virtue of the fact that we've been baptized and indwelt permanently by the Holy Spirit, we make up a the just the the bride of christ right so we're in a while new not not better in the sense that god is not focused and still working on that social distinction and cultural distinction that israel has um we have something that's very unique and then that comforter that advocate the the permanent indwelling of the holy spirit is something that that differentiates For sure, right?

Does that make sense? You know, one thing I think said in a different way is really comforting, and that is, at the instant we believe in Jesus, we're indwelt by the Holy Spirit, never to leave us. Which is the permanent part, but I never thought of it as a He will never leave us. The Spirit will never, like in the Old Testament, the Spirit would leave like the Saul, but the Holy Spirit indwells us never to leave.

Man. An amazing truth. Yeah. So can someone read 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20 for me? Glorify God with your body. Awesome. So what's the key word in that verse, do you think? Our body is the temple. The key word is our body. Yep. Temple. So another word could be sanctuary. We talk about the sanctuary at church or whatnot, but what's the true sanctuary? What's the true temple right now? Well, the Holy Spirit dwells in there. That's right. It's not God the Father. God the Father dwelt in the temple, but God the Holy Spirit dwells in us personally. That's awesome. It's interesting, the idea of habitation. Good job, Bill. Yeah.

So what about Ephesians 2.22? Let's just put this together a little bit further.

I like to see you guys work through the Bible here. So instead of reading it, I want you to look it up. In whom you are built together. Or a habitation of God through the Spirit? Is that what you're looking for? Uh-huh. So what's this built-togetherness? That's talking about the body of Christ. So not only are you a temple, but you're part of a body of Christ that is built together. And who does that?

The Spirit. The Spirit does that. Through the Spirit. So when we're talking about the person and the work of the Holy Spirit, He not only baptizes and permanently indwells us, and we're going to talk about this a little bit more in a few minutes, He creates a habitation through believers together. So there's a unity that is created there.

And if you think about it being a spiritual version of the temple, who's the cornerstone? Jesus. Yeah, Jesus Christ. That's right. Christ is the cornerstone, but it's actually the spirit that joins us together into one habitation, so to speak. And it's the combination of that that really forms the temple or the house of God. So when we talk about temples and houses and the house of God and things of that nature, we have to look at it through the lens of these two verses at least, if not more for sure. But the holy temple of the Lord is those who are a part of the body of Christ by virtue of the work and indwelling and baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Isn't that interesting? I sit here and look at each of your faces, and there's millions and millions of others out there that make up this body of Christ. But that's what we're doing this morning, is we're here by virtue of that work of the Holy Spirit, both individually and corporately, which we're going to talk about.

So question number four. It says in John 14, 15, and 16, so those chapters, what two great facts are spoken of repeatedly? And I've got some verses for you. So let's look at verse 14, 28. So John 14, 28. We'll have somebody read that one. And someone else grab 15, 13.

Chapter 15, verse 13. 1428 is, you heard that I said to you, I go away, and I will come to you. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. Thank you, Jim. And 1513, who has that one? Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. Yep.

And then you could go to chapter 16, which we also mentioned, and then 5 through 15. If you want to look that up, that's a little longer read. But what's the theme of what's being said in those three chapters? What's the first theme? Basically, his own departure to the Father is the first theme. Everyone agree with that? Yeah. Okay, so we'll come back to that a little bit. So let's look at 1426, which is just prior to the verse we just read. 1426 and then 1526. Someone else grab that one after this one is read.

This on 1426 in the Amplified lists the different ministries of the Holy Spirit, but it says, But the Comforter, Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Stand by the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, in my place to represent me, and act on my behalf.

He will teach you all things, and He will cause you to recall, will remind you of, and bring to your remembrance everything I have told you. Boy, that sounds like the amplified version. It is, but it's good. It's still accurate for that purpose. What about chapter 15, 26? Thanks, Joanne. When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.

Yeah. So what's the second theme that we see in the chapters 14, 15, and 16 of John? What's that second theme? The coming and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You got it. So there's really those two themes that are quite evident within John's writing. And when did John write this? Obviously, it was pre-Pentecost.

So what do you think his mindset was in terms of communicating this? What was the purpose of him communicating those two themes, the departure of the Lord Jesus to the Father and the coming of the indwelling Holy Spirit? Was that new information? I mean that, you know, we're talking to largely that you know that did the jewish population what do you think was going on in their mind during this this kind of revelation that john was communicating i'm not sure they got it you don't think i i i didn't even know is going to raise from the dead that was such a new information that uh... I'm not sure that they could put it together, you know?

Yep. So in looking back, in terms of having Paul's writings and the additional apostles in the New Testament, do you get it? Yeah, good point. At first, I think it's a hard concept. So question number five says, why was it expedient and advantageous for Christ to go to the Father? So let's talk about the departure piece. Why was it advantageous and expedient? I like how you've worded that, Mike. Yeah, I think this is a critical issue right here. Because it appears like he's saying to them, that he really needed to go to the Father before the Holy Spirit could be sent. And there was a reason for it. It points all the way back to what we were talking about in question three.

The Spirit could indwell people in the Old Testament for specific purposes, but the Spirit is going to come to represent Christ. And which Christ is he going to represent? the Christ of the Old Testament, the Christ as a human being on the earth resurrected, or I think this points to the fact that the Lord Jesus as a man has to go back to the Father after his work is finished in order for the Father to glorify him.

And he asked for that in John 17. He said, Father, glorify me with the glory that we had before the world began. So when he's there and he's glorified as a man, that is the person. And with those qualifications that the Spirit is going to reveal to believers.

Does that make sense? Yes, and Jesus also sits at the right hand of God interceding for us night and day, which is also a blessing as well. It is a blessing, but think about who the Lord Jesus is when he goes back to the Father. He's a human being who has a resurrected body, but he's not glorified yet. And so he would be the first human being to be glorified with the glory, the sum total of God's intrinsic attributes would be in a human.

Yes. And so when the Spirit begins to show believers today who the Lord Jesus is, we're looking at the glorified Christ. It's the same Christ that Paul saw on the road to Damascus, the glorious Christ. And so what's cool about that is that that one fact alone separates us from Israel. Because the glory of the Shekinah glory, like you said, Russ, was God the father. And we're talking about the son here, the second person, who is a human being. And the fact that he's a human being is a critical issue, I think, for us. Yeah, thank God, man.

Why was departure necessary? Why was Christ's departure necessary for us in the body of Christ? Because if he didn't depart, the Holy Spirit wouldn't come. He had to depart so the Spirit would come. You know, in John 15, 12, he says, while I was with them, I was protecting them and guarding them. Well, he had to die for the sins of the whole earth, and he wasn't going to be able to protect them and guide them anymore. So when he left, the Holy Spirit took over that ministry. that's a really excellent way of stating and i think yeah his departure led to the promise and i think that were promises is was really important at that particular point in time uh... we get to reap the the benefits of having that comforter and and advocate uh... having been baptized and identified with him we now are each individually indwelled uh... and that was That was not the ministry of the Lord Jesus. It's the ministry of the Spirit. No. Yes?

I was going to say, when you look at 2 Corinthians 3.18 talks about beholding, it's in the mirror.

It doesn't say the Lord Jesus. It says the glory of the Lord Jesus. And that beholding in God's Word of the glory of the Lord Jesus is the thing or the I'm looking, searching for the right word, is the entity that does the transforming us into the very image of Christ. Well, what's that image from glory to glory?

We don't realize, I think, a lot of times as human beings, that part of our spiritual growth is into glorification. You know, it isn't just being a someone who's growing spiritually, it's more than that. It's a manifestation of the glory of Christ through us as human beings. We could go through this entire Zoom meeting and Donna, Brian, each of you are being, excuse me, the work of the Holy Spirit, because of the departure of Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, you are being transformed into His image.

That's the major part of what God's doing in the life of Christ. of each of you, and largely in the body of Christ. Well, and not to sound redundant, but that image is not the image of Christ on the earth. No, that's the glorified Christ, right? And that's one of the big defining issues between Reformed theology and those who live under grace. The issue is the glorious Christ.

AJ, I'm sorry, JD. Let me just see if I got this kind of straight. So Christ had to return to heaven to be glorified. We also know that Christ sent the Spirit with the Father. Christ, the Son, and the Father both sent the Spirit, right? The Spirit is sent to us in part to testify to the glorified Christ. Is there also an element, I mean, that Christ remains in heaven? Because when the glorified Christ returns, I mean, that's judgment, right? Like, so, is that, I don't know, I'm just kind of putting some of these pieces together in my head, saying, does that make sense? That makes perfect sense, yeah. Yeah, it does. Yeah, it does. Yeah.

When in John, the Lord Jesus says, I will send the spirit and he will remind you of everything I've taught you and reveal me to you. The deal is that a lot of what Christ taught them they couldn't apprehend because one, they weren't, to use the old term, born anew. They didn't have the spiritual capacity to understand. And two is they couldn't behold the glory of the Lord because The glory is reserved for those who are baptized into Christ. Is there a sense in which, I mean, this world can't, like the glorified Christ almost can't come to this world unless he comes in judgment? Is that, I mean, it's just, I don't know, maybe I'm a little off track there. Like, just feel like this fallen world can't contain that glory, in a sense, or something like that. I don't know, without just being crouched.

When he takes the church out of here in the rapture, and then seven years later he comes to rule and reign for a thousand years, and we're all with him, is he and all of the members of the body of Christ going to be manifesting his glory while we're here for a thousand years?

Sure, I believe he is. Yeah, I think we are too. And it's not pure judgment through the millennial reign, right? He is on the throne. However, there are still aspects of grace that will continue to remain. So there can still be believers that come from that period.

But yes, I think the idea here is that that the Lord Jesus had to depart in order for the promise of the Holy Spirit, the comforter, the advocate that we need as a body in preparation to be, you know, face-to-face with him as the bride of Christ Those were those were the that was the sequence of what we see in the scripture And it's a it's an active role that the Holy Spirit plays in our lives in order to like Mike makes mention to As we behold him he conforms us to the glory of the image of Christ, so That's what's going so in question number six.

There's miles. I should ask does that help answer your question to a small degree Yeah, I'm sure I'm just I like it's kind of an interesting question, right? Why did Christ have to leave? I mean, why couldn't you've been glorified here and then? You know, but there's obviously there's the building of the body of Christ. I guess the question is why does it have to?

Happen with him absence from the scene physically, and the Holy Spirit testifying to his glorification. I think there are two reasons. One is that in John 17, he asks the Father to be glorified. And the other reason is that according to the eternal covenant, if he fulfilled his role, the Father would raise him. and glorify him. So even though God is omnipresent, I still think he had to go as a human being to where the Father was in order to be glorified. And I still, to be honest, wonder how did that, what did they do? you know because the Lord Jesus as a man other than on the Mount of Transfiguration you never saw his glory while he was on the earth and what the apostles saw on the Mount of Transfiguration was limited it wasn't blinding like what the apostle Paul saw and there is a sense in which I can't get past the idea that here's a human being He's the second person of the Trinity, but he's a human. And a human being sitting on the throne today is a man who has been glorified. So if you see him, the full radiance of God's attributes flow out of him, you know? That's the kind of glory you were talking about earlier. Yeah. So I think he had to go to the source of where the glory was in the Father, you know? And if you look at the way everything plays out, that echo is drippy to me. I don't know where that's coming from. We all end up glorified in the same place.

So the work of the Holy Spirit in terms of, in relationship rather, to the departure of Christ is just part of that process that is now forming two different aspects of how His indwelling affects us today. So question six, there are two phases of this indwelling. What are they? Individual and corporate.

Thanks, Joanne. You're exactly right. Somebody grab 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20. Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. You are bought with a price. So glorify God with your body. So we read that a little bit earlier, but that speaks to which aspect of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? The individual, right? The individual, yeah. Yeah, that's the temple side of things. Individually.

And then you get to the corporate side, to Joanne's point, we go back to Ephesians 2.22, we talked about it earlier. Christ is the cornerstone, forms the house or the temple of God. So, it's interesting that the work of the Holy Spirit is not just individual, it's corporate in the body. The Lord is building a house, a larger house, not just individual temples, but the larger house of God or sanctuary. We use that term as well.

So when you think about how that relates to us today and come to question number seven, how does a believer maintain the view of the temple in a church that is so ruined? How do we maintain that view? By letting Christ live through us? And who does that? Well, the Holy Spirit does that. Do you think that the church at large, and when we say church a lot of times we We attach that to a denomination, we attach it to a local body, I think Colley Hills, but I mean we obviously have a local church, churches as well as the global church, but what's the role of the Holy Spirit in terms of unity with regards to not only ourselves at Holly Hills, but the larger church. And why is that so confusing today? Because people don't understand exactly what the church is, do you think?

I agree with that. I would agree with it as well. We think of church, we think of, you know, what's down on the corner. We don't think about the Holy Spirit as a promise, a comfort, an advocator, doing the work of conforming and transforming. the source of our own regeneration, the indwelling, the baptism, and the sealing. We don't have unity around that truth as much as we have unity around what a board of directors says about a particular set of thoughts or beliefs or traditions. Yeah, JD, that's one thing.

I guess you and I chatted about that a little bit last week, like in reference to this Pastor James Coates and other issues going on right now. I mean, we certainly wouldn't agree with him in every area of theology, but we recognize that he's a part of the body of Christ. And I think in some way in these days, we're recognizing more and more the, at least I am, the unity of the body of Christ, universal.

There's a couple of verses I'm looking at in Revelation 21, Revelation 21, 9, and then you can just jump down to verse 22. And the angel says, come here, I'll show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he goes and he shows him the whole city and stuff, and then it comes down and it says, I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." It's kind of striking when you look at that in reference to Ephesians 2.

You're being built together into dwelling of God in spirit, the temple. I think it helps a little bit when we have that. that eschatological view of the church, right? I mean, we are the temple, we're being built together into the temple, which is an eternal union in Christ.

So... Yeah, I think that's the end game, right? So we have the ability to look at Revelation and see the end game of what the Lord is doing by virtue of building the body of Christ and where we end up. From a question number 8 perspective, this kind of dovetails with what you're saying, Miles.

The Spirit is, at this particular point in time for us, currently, it's the continual formation of the Church, right? Every instance of baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is fired off by the non-meritorious work of faith, for each individual who becomes a part of that body, forms the church. And so he's forming the church at this particular point in time. But not only is he forming the church, he doesn't just baptize you, he also empowers you for your walk of faith. So it's the forming of the church and it's the individual motivation, comfort, advocation, the pointing back to the Lord Jesus in order for the walk of faith to occur during the duration of him building the body of Christ.

And so kind of in conclusion, I know I'm over time. Thanks for hanging in there with me. The spirit's work of baptism and dwelling really has those, it's individual, it's corporate, it's forming the church, and it's empowering the walk on a day-to-day basis. So that's where we are with lesson number three. I'll cap it there on my end. Mike, any last thoughts before we break? No, I think it was good. I would make one last thought.

That the church as it exists in the heavenlies is perfect. And it is a heavenly organism, not an earthly one. And so it can appear to be sort of chaotic on the earth, but in its position, it's perfect. Yeah, that's a really good point. We have a lot packed into the word church, don't we? Yeah. And we've got to get our minds back to what the word of God talks about as the body of Christ. I agree. Yeah.

Well, let's pray, and then we'll move on to main hour. Father Howie, thank you. the work of yourself in terms of coming and living a perfect life on our behalf, dying for us and being buried again and taking on the resurrected life and the glory that was given to you heavenly. And Lord, we know that you are working now through the promise of the Holy Spirit as our comforter and advocate to regenerate and dwell us and baptize us and seal us and to conform us to your very image here. But we recognize also that the body of Christ has a heavenly position. And Lord, we just pray that we would continue to have that perspective and understanding that you're at work and you're doing something within us, individually and corporately, in order to accomplish that glory. And so we thank you for it. We just pray for the next hour that your word would be communicated clearly and that we would be able to just be illuminated by virtue of the holy, indwelling Holy Spirit. In your name we pray. Amen.