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13 March 2004
Alpha Talk 7
Who is the Holy Spirit? What does the Spirit
do?
Javier A. Viera
This afternoon we’re going to do something
somewhat different from what we are accustomed to doing in Alpha. Rather than giving a talk I
will instead lead us in an exploration through the bible. This is will be a participatory time
when I am not going to talk much; rather, you are. And after we’ve looked at scripture in an
attempt to understand who the Holy Spirit is, we will then consider what the spirit does.
We should admit right up front that the Holy
Spirit is the most problematic and elusive person of the Trinity. Is it a ghost? Is an
entity? Is it an it? We don’t know. As a pastor, people regularly tell me life stories in
which they are attributing all kinds of things to the “spirit.” “I don’t know how it happened.
I must have been the Spirit.” “The words just came to me. It must have been the Spirit.” But I
don’t know what this means. I don’t know what it says about the “spirit.” So the best way to
get at this is by turning to Scripture. Let’s see what scripture has to tell us about who the
Spirit is.
A question I’m often asked is, “Why don’t we
hear about the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament?” There is a widespread perception that the
Holy Spirit is only really active in the New Testament, but that couldn’t be farther from the
truth. We begin by looking at the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.
1) Genesis 1.1-2
As we can see the Spirit is
present from the very beginning. It is the Spirit of God that hovers over the waters at
creation and brings forth order out of chaos. Thus the first thing scripture tells us about the
Spirit is that the Spirit is creator, and that the Spirit brings forth harmony, beauty, and
order out of chaos, darkness, and disorder.
2) Genesis 2.7
The Hebrew word for breath is
“ruach” which is the same word that is translated as “spirit.” In other words, in this text
what is being communicated is that God breathed his Spirit into us as we were brought to life.
This is part of what it means to have been created in the image of God.
3) Exodus 31.3-5
Bezalel, the Artist. The Spirit
filled people for artistic work. It is possible for an artist or musician to do his/her craft
without being filled with the Spirit. But what this scripture tells us is that God’s spirit
does inspire people for such work. God’s spirit inspires people to create beauty (remember
creation) and harmony. What makes this different from any other creative work of art is that
its end or purposes is for the glory and work of God.
4) Judges 6.15, 34
Gideon shows us that God’s Spirit
fills people for leadership. Although Gideon was an unlikely choice as leader, and his own clan
was the smallest and weakest of all, God’s Spirit empowered him to become one of Israel’s great
Judges.
5) Judges 15.14
In the story of Samson we see
that God’s Spirit gives physical strength and the ability to accomplish works that are beyond
our own powers.
6) Isaiah 61.1-2
The Spirit of God comes upon us
in order that we might accomplish the work of God. It is the Spirit that enables us to bring
good news to the oppressed, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners,
etc… This is the work of God in the world and this is the work for which we are commissioned
and empowered.
7) Ezekiel 36.26-27
This passage is about
transformation. God’s Spirit will change us, will destroy our hearts of stone, and will give us
a desire for God and God’s ways.
8) Joel 2.28-29
This passage concerns the
outpouring of God’s Spirit. When it happens we get a vision of life larger than our own. God
takes what we think is our reality and causes us to see differently—to see reality as God’s sees
it.
Now let’s turn to the New Testament and see
what it tells us about the Holy Spirit.
9) Luke 3.16, 22
In these verses we see that the
Spirit is intimately present in Jesus and in the work of Jesus. The descent of the Spirit also
confirms for us who Jesus is—“this is my Son, the beloved; in him I am well pleased.”
10) Luke 4.1, 14, 21
The Spirit leads Jesus into the
wilderness to face temptation and all that might keep him from God and his mission in life.
Such truthful, soul-searching work enables him then to return in the power of the Spirit to
understand his life as wholly dedicated to the life saving purposes of God.
11) Acts 2
This is the classic New Testament
text describing the work of the Spirit. Clearly, the Spirit of God empowers us and gives us
boldness to proclaim the good news.
12) Galatians 5.22-25
Note that this text does not
describe the “fruits” of the Spirit. It describes the “fruit” (singular). A life in the Spirit
is a life that can be described in this way. A life that is full of love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, generosity, and self-control. This is the kind of
life that the Spirit of God engenders.
Now having looked to scripture for guidance
on who the Spirit is and what the Spirit does, let’s look more closely at the work of Spirit in
terms of our journey through life.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism,
understood the work of the Spirit primarily as the work of salvation. He wrote about the Ordus
Salutus, or the Order of Salvation, as that process by which the Spirit of God is at work in us
saving us from ourselves and for God.
Wesley begins by asking the question, “How
does the story of God’s salvation become our story?” He believes that salvation is the entire
work of God, it is what God does—“from the first gleaning of our souls to final
consummation/union with God.” But how does it happen?
1) It begins with our Repentence. The first
stirrings of conscience that not all is well with our souls is the presence of the Spirit wooing
us back to God. It is a prompting of the Spirit. It is God’s spirit that helps us to see that
our lives are empty with God, that our primal relationship is broken. This is not something we
accomplish or come to on our own. Thus, the Spirit helps us come to the point when we cast
ourselves on the mercy of God, which is the beginning of faith.
2) Repentence is followed by Justification.
For Wesley, Justification is God’s forgiveness of our sin, or as Wesley put it, “our acceptance
by God.” The Spirit enables there to be a relational change between God and us. A real change
takes place. God makes us what God declares us to be, similarly to what happened when the
Spirit descended on Jesus at his baptism, “This is my son/daughter, my beloved, in whom I am
well pleased.”
3) At the moment of justification,
Regeneration happens. Regeneration is a real change, and is that moment when the Spirit
empowers us, enables us, to live a changed life for glory of God. We are regenerated, and
perhaps reoriented for life with a purpose it has thus far lacked.
4) Following our regeneration, the process
of Sanctification begins. Sanctification is the on-going, lifelong process of growth in our new
life. Wesley described Sanctification as the process by which we “go on toward perfection.”
Perfection for Wesley means learning to love God and our neighbor perfectly. It does not imply
“perfection” as a life without fault or mistakes; rather, the implication is that we learn to
love as God loves. Sanctification takes places principally in two ways: a) our partaking in
the means of grace. The means of grace are—the sacraments (baptism and holy communion), reading
and mediating of the holy scriptures, worship, prayer, study, etc. b) cultivation of our
earthly life in fruit of the Spirit. By this Wesley means that we learn to strive for a life as
is characterized in Galatians 5.22-25 (see comments on this passage in the prior section above).
5) Union with God. At our life’s end the
process of Sanctification culminates in our spiritual and physical union with God.
So what does this all mean? Who cares and
why does it matter to the living of our days? It matters because the work of God is the work of
saving us. God is constantly seeking us out, searching for us, longing for us—not in some
narcissistic way—“Oh, God loves me and I’m so important to God,”—which may in fact be true. But
this love isn’t about giving meaning and purpose to the life you’ve chosen to live; rather, it
is about saving you from yourself and the little life you’ve created in order that God might
take you and incorporate you in God’s life. The end, the purpose of God’s searching is in order
to include you into God’s world and what God is doing. The Spirit re-orients our lives for
God’s end and purpose, and that is what it means to be saved and born-again.
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