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We've been trying to address um what the scripture says about the Holy Spirit in the life of Christ. And we we looked at these um stages.
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And we kind of ended somewhere in here last last time and I would just wanted to do a a brief summary of um what I believe we see from the gospels.
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Um Jesus on his return from the wilderness temptations wilderness temptations uh came preaching the gospel and um Luke
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4:14 tells us uh that he returned to Galilee in the power of the spirit and news about him spread throughout all the surrounding district and he began
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teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all in in all of Uh and I I believe that this
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walking in the power of the spirit, coming in the power of the spirit was for his entire ministry. that in all of the trials that he faced, the
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temptations and the troubles, the the meetings that he had with the various groups of Pharisees, scribes, the the uh people in the courts, those who uh
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attempted to twist his words and uh make him say things that they wanted to accuse him with. uh his his suffering in the in the garden uh at the hands of the
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Roman soldiers all of these things that he needed the support and consolation of the spirit and he was he received it. He was greatly strengthened and aided by
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the spirit throughout the course of his his ministry. uh a guiding, a directing, a comforting. a comforting. And that uh powerful aid enabled him to
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preach with power um and wisdom, but with grace and with with knowledge. So, you know, when we see him rebuking
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fever in individuals, we also see him rebuking demons. Um, he healed sicknesses, but he also reversed paralysis.
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He calmed the wind and the surging waves, but he also calmed those of his disciples. In doing so,
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um, he fed 5,000 people and yet he was able to teach his disciples to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread. dependent upon the father.
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Um he he shut the mouths of the raging scoffers and yet his ear was attentive to the plaintiff cry of the
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two blind men on the side of the road. He escaped the grasping of the evil ones who wanted to take him and throw him off a cliff.
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a cliff. And yet And yet in the silence of the touch of a woman
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in pain from her bleeding for many years, he was able to feel her simply touch the hem of his garment.
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In Luke's chapter 6, we read, "And all the people were trying to touch him, for power was coming from him and healing them all." I believe that in his ministry, that power was the power of
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the Holy Spirit, working in a man who did walk with the spirit, who did keep in step with the
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spirit. And so I believe that the wonders that Christ did were in the power, in the energy, in the presence of the Holy Spirit. And we read um
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in Matthew 12, and I didn't copy that, so I'll read it here.
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It's in the middle of a dispute and accusations that he has and yet revealing I think
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how Jesus acknowledged the work of of the spirit. Then there was brought to him a demon-possessed man. This is Matthew 12:22. A demon-possessed man who was blind and
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dumb. and he healed him so that the dumb man spoke and saw and all the multitudes were amazed and began to say, "This man cannot be the son of David, can he?" But
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when the Pharisees heard it, they said, "This man casts out demons only by be elible, the ruler ruler of demons." And knowing their thoughts, he said to them,
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"Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and any city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, he is
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divided against himself. How then shall his kingdom stand? And if I by it beelible cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Consequently,
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they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. For how can anyone enter the strong man's house and carry off his property
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unless he first binds the strong man and then he will plunder his house. He who is not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me scatters. Um
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I think again Jesus is acknowledging that or proclaiming really that the kingdom is here. the kingdom it's
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um it's already uh part is already here and that his his work is in the power of the spirit and
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there is that inf intimate connection between the works that he does and the spirit of god
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so I believe again that summarizes his his ministry and how he goes about his ministry. his ministry. But when we come to this one,
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stage what some people call stage three, um it's it's not as easy. Um and so I will freely acknowledge that um
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the scripture doesn't how would I say it? it it doesn't answer all the questions that I would have about how the spirit um
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worked in in the death, resurrection, and ascension uh of Christ. Um
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the focus of Jesus death seems to be to me um particularly um in one of the passages that is cited by some of the theologians as being this is what the spirit did. Um I I disagree with um but
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the focus seems to be Jesus offering up himself. Um, and let me read from
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Hebrews 9. This is verses 13 and 14. For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a hepher sprinkling those
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who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered
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himself without blemish to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Um, there are translations that
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capitalize the word spirit. Um, and it may be that they capitalize them because the uh translators thought that
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that was the Holy Spirit. It may be because they capitalize it because they recognize that there's something
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that made them capitalize it saying that there there is an emphasis the the focus of of many people and um I guess we're one week behind um because Easter was
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last Sunday but the focus of many people in the in the death the the um
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sacrifice of Christ on the cross is is on the the at the hands of the evil men the it's it's almost as if in their conception of Jesus passion the
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the Roman you know Pontius Pilate first the Roman soldiers the the the method of crucifixion gets top billing
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in their in their understanding or at least their their depiction of the crucifixion. But I I think the writer to the Hebrews
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tells us that the principal consideration is the offering of himself as a sacrifice for sin. And
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but I I I think the this is not the Holy Spirit, the eternal spirit. The the author here of Hebrews is he's
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contrasting the soul of the the bulls and goats, the animal and the divinity of Christ, the divinity of the second
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person of the Trinity um and not uh the emphasis on the Holy Spirit. Now, John Owen is
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one of those that takes it as the eternal spirit, the third person of the trinity. Um, that he acted on uh upon Jesus in the whole of his
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suffering and death. Um and and it is true the things that he writes uh and as as a
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as a his sort of um proof if you will of of this uh position. Um he says, "But I but I see the grace gifts of the of the
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spirit upon Christ." But when I review those, it's here. It's it's it's in here and not
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specifically in the scriptures telling us about the time of of Jesus' death. But what we see uh again is true that his love and
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compassion for people um in in Christ the the ardent affection that he has for the glory of God the father. Uh we see
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that in Jesus ministry. we see this wholehearted submission to to God's will and and his complete trust that he exhibited uh at all times even even as
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he cried uh and and offered prayers um again I I believe that in the power of the spirit but here at at his death and
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and only um as I say the scripture doesn't reveal everything we would like to know uh at least from the study specifically of the Holy
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Spirit that we might like to know. It doesn't reveal to us all of the workings of the spirit and his role in in Christ's death.
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But when the writer to the Hebrews says that the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God. Um
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to me the words that stood out were the words right before that. How much more that that there there's a difference here there there his blood had a virtue
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that was able to cleanse the conscience. That's what he says. The blood of the the animals could help the with the cleansing of the flesh
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but but not of the conscience. not of that deepest uh most spiritual uh intensity uh intensity uh and nature that um was required. And
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so it it must be of a of a of eternal validity, a divine uh and and obviously in the context of
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Hebrews nine, Jesus is is is offering himself as priest. And that there's that's significant.
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But he's also offering the his blood because it was of infinite value, not of the just um temporary value of the
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animals. And so, um, again, I'm arguing against that what we see here in in Hebrews 9 is is of the of the spirit,
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but Jesus offering himself, sanctifying himself, uh, in terms of dedicating himself to God as an offering for the sacrifice, uh, as an offering for sin.
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He did it voluntarily. Um Paul says in Ephesians 5 of this offering, he gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God as a
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fragrant aroma. Um this sweet savor of rest not only pleased God, but it was
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was meant as as a rest of his wrath toward mankind. toward mankind. And and again I it's through the eternal spirit of Christ, his
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giving of himself, offering himself. Um so I found it somewhat ironic when when John Owen summarizes these things,
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I I think he got it right. Um let me read his his quote here. He says, "It was not then by the outward suffering of a violent and bloody death
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which was inflicted on him by the most horrible wickedness that ever human nature broke forth into that God was atoned." Nor yet was it merely his
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enduring the penalty of the law that was the means of our deliverance. But the voluntary giving up of himself to be a sacrifice in these holy acts of
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obedience wi was that which in a special manner God was reconciled to us. Um I I I think he gets it right that our our
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focus is not on the violence. Our focus is not on the the who uh the Romans or Pilate or any of that. But our focus
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uh helped us by the writer to the Hebrews is his giving up of himself as a holy act by an eternal spirit um that
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was in Christ. Um that's how I I see that. So um what role the spirit took directly in in that death um is um not revealed to us
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in scripture. would be speculation on our parts. And yet, um, as I've said quite often, um, in studying these things, we we marvel,
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uh, we're in awe and, uh, in gratitude of the the offering of of Jesus Christ. Um it it's
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it it's it's something that it's yes it's theology but we we stand back and and are um
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we try to take it in because it's it's beyond our understanding and yet it's um it's why we are we are gathered here comment. I was just noticing that he seems to be
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making a pretty one to one direct in verses 13 and 14. The blood of bulls and goats versus the blood of Christ.
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The sprinkling of defiled person with the ashes of a heer one that has been completely burned up
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through the eternal spirit offered himself without God. that the sight of his offering is of himself is also that issue that that he that he was not simply a sacrificial
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death but a sacrificial death made on the true altar, right? and and by not the physical fire that to Israel represented and signified
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the presence of God in their midst, but rather through that what was the origin of that fire, the Holy Spirit, the true presence of God being the consuming fire.
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Yeah. Any other comments, questions? Um that's that's where I came to. Um, I appreciate John Owen uh in terms of the
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depth of of his study. Um, but I don't agree um with his um laying out that this has to be the Holy Spirit. Um,
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I just I I see here um just the focus is on on Christ and uh his offering. And uh
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what I do see uh moving on to resurrection and ascension. And it was kind of hard to to pull those apart, but
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um I have come across in a couple of places the um
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Um, I will not try to um recite the uh the Latin behind this because the Latinists among you will uh roll their eyeballs um at me. Um the external works of the Trinity are undivided.
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that what we what we actually see in the scriptures is reference to the father, to the son, and to the spirit in terms of the the resurrection. And uh to limit
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it to uh one of the persons of the trinity um is wrong. Um and yet how these works uh work together the the the
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economy the the um um probably another word that I can't come up with now the how they cooperate maybe
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um is pretty uh interesting. Uh for example, um we see the father in Acts uh
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Um, therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent because he has fixed the day in
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which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead.
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um seems pretty clear that he um is God the Father. Um but again um
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it's the the act of raising Christ, the um the way in which uh the eternal plan of redemption is laid out in in these
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two verses. uh God declaring to men that they should repent because he has fixed the day through a man he has appointed and he raised him from the dead. Uh a
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declaration of this is the man and uh the father's connection to the resurrection. But even Jesus himself says uh in John
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chapter 10, he says, "For this reason the father loves me because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. No one has taken it away from me, but I
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lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. The commandment I received, this is the commandment I received from my father."
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the the will of the of the son following the authority and the will of the father again the conjunction the
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cooperation that we see um and then um the holy spirit uh Romans 1 concerning his son who was born of a descendant of
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David according to the flesh who was declared shared the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead according to the spirit of holiness
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Paul in 1 Timothy 3, um, this amazing, um, verse and I guess, uh, for me um trying to grasp uh what is
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almost I I guess you would say ungraspable for for humans this mystery of godliness of godliness by common confession great is the mystery of godliness. He was revealed in
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the flesh, was vindicated or or justified in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Um
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it is a mystery. It's a wonderful mystery. Um and yet um we can on on one level understand
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level understand the the works of the trinity that that the scriptures are not holding back. They're not trying to uh mystify us in a sense of um
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you know this is this is things you cannot know. cannot know. It's trying to show us that in in the infinite plan of God that these these
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are works that um are of the cooperation of the members of the trinity. The three in one and the one and three.
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Peter uh says this, "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the
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flesh, but made alive in the spirit." Um is is it the Holy Spirit? Is it his spirit? Um, I I I think what we see here
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as the scriptures explain the resurrection to us is that um it's it's a new day.
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It's a there there is an intimate connection between the spirit and Christ.
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Um Christ's resurrection uh body, the glorious spiritual body that he has um is now
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is now um you know we get we get a peak into um what awaits us, what um the
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what the future holds. U let me read a couple of verses from Romans 6. And then Philippians 3, therefore we have been buried with him through
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baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father, so we too might walk in newness of life. Again, raised
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from the dead through the glory of the father. But it's foretelling for believers for believers uh that we might one day walk in the
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newness of life. In Philippians 3, we read, "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will
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transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory by the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to
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himself." There is a a spiritual power that took place at the resurrection that is awaiting us. Uh that we are and even you
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know the already transforming the body of our humble state into conformity with his body.
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And here's where it gets hard, if it isn't already hard.
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encounters that Christ had with the disciples and and others. And he says, "So also it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam became a lifegiving
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spirit. Um Christ's resurrection is is the is the first fruits of a you new humanity.
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Um the spirit of Christ and Christ have uh they share an identity. Um Jesus says, "I I will I will send
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another helper." another helper." Well, another helper seems to indicate to me the the the the shared identity here. Not that they are the same, but
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they are of the another of the same kind, I think, is how we would interpret that. Another witness advocate in the Holy Spirit. the the word used there is
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you know the pariclete the one who does come alongside but as we've we've learned more to me more accurately the the witness advocate of the spirit uh
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Sinclair Ferguson in his work says there is a clear ontological distinction or meaning the nature of their existence is distinct between the son and the
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spirit but economic or function functional charact uh equivalence. He goes on to say with respect to his economic or the functional ministry, the
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spirit has been imprinted with the character of Jesus.
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Paul seems to indicate this in Romans chapter 8. However, you are not in the flesh but in the spirit. If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you, but if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. If
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Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised
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Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. I don't pretend to be able to unravel
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all of that, to comprehend or wrap my mind around all of that. But there is something to the fact that now we have that other helper, that one of the same
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kind who lives in us, who is um instilling in us the the spirit of Christ. Um
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Christ. Um Paul in 2 Corinthians 3 writes the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a
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mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as from the Lord the spirit. Um
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spirit. Um there there is a sense in which the the spirit has become the property of Christ. um according to uh the Dutch Calvinist Herman Bavink, that's how he
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put it. Uh and there is um for us um this the the fullness of the spirit in Christ
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to us means that that we have the spirit of Christ as as Paul has said here that we if we are in Christ we we have his spirit and we belong to him and it's a
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spirit of liberty. It's a spirit of of righteousness which we've seen is characteristic of the Holy Spirit bringing us freedom, bringing us
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revelation um of God and the presence of God and um further you know we we see in in uh Romans or sorry Revelation 3, let let me
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read that. Um it seems to indicate this idea of the fullness. Um this is the angel of the church in Sardis writing he who has the seven
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spirits. Seven being the u the number of completeness. I believe here the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says I know your deeds that you have a name
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but you are alive but you are dead. this seven spirits um the completeness of the Holy Spirit in that that word there I think uh indicating that this is uh the
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Christ's possession of that that fullness of the spirit um that the resurrected Christ the ascended Christ
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um has sent us this lifegiving spirit to to live in us uh as as his gift. Um, and
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you know what I see? I was uh again looking at Owen, looking at Ferguson and some others and they're they're just if you think about the continuity of the
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work of of Christ in his ministry on earth and how that that ministry continues after the ascension, after um he's gone,
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he's gone, sending the Holy Spirit um to us. um the the similarities the similarities uh kind of popped out with a a couple of
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phrases that that some of these men mentioned. The Jesus was sent from the father by the father but the holy spirit was also sent from the
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father and by the father. Uh Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life. And how does he describe the holy spirit? He is the spirit of truth.
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Um Jesus we know and and some of his disciples actually use that word teacher. Good teacher. He was a teacher to his disciples.
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But the Holy Spirit was sent to to teach all believers. He will teach you all things. Uh he will hear of mine and reveal it to you.
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Jesus was not known or accepted by the world. John John 1 says he he was sent and his own did not receive him.
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receive him. And what did Jesus say about the spirit? The world cannot know the spirit but but you can if you're in me. John 14,
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I will ask the father and he will give you another helper that he may be with you forever. That is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it
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does not see him or know him. But you know him because he abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as
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orphans. I will come to you. And in that that context I believe that Jesus was not when he said I will come to you. I don't think he was telling
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them, "All right, I've told you about my death and my resurrection, but I don't think he was referring to that when he said, "I will come to you."
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Nor do I think he's referring to his second coming, his second appearing when he says, "I will come to you." But I think in this context, in this
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immediate context that the spirit of truth, another helper is coming to you. I think he is talking about that gift of the Holy Spirit that will come to us in
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Christ. Let us pray. Our father, again, these these things that we see in scripture are sometimes
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difficult to understand. the interpreters using their their best ability and yet you have told us to to
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search the scriptures and see if these things are so. And I pray that we would we would not shrink back from studying, from reading, from meditating and
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praying about these things. Father, we we seek because you have told us to seek. We seek. We know that you have said that in the
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scriptures you will we will find Christ. We will see him as we search. And so we pray that uh we might be diligent in our study. But we do thank you for the
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things even those things that we can't fully understand. Your plan of redemption to send your son into this world to to live and walk by the spirit
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and yet to lay down his life for his friends and to willingly lay it down and then take it up again in that great
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resurrection morning. And so we thank you for these things. We rejoice in them and thank you that in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, we
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have a church. We have a body and you have called us to be in it. We thank you for these things in Christ's name. Amen.
