Abstract
The Holy Spirit
This day of Pentecost directs our thoughts towards the Holy Spirit, one of God’s three self-expressions, revelations of Himself to humankind. He meets us as the Creator and He meets us as the Christ; but He meets us even more directly as the Holy Spirit.
The meeting is direct enough; yet it is far from easy to define or to describe the Holy Spirit. The older name for Holy Spirit was, as many hymns remind us, Holy Ghost; and while I much prefer the newer name, the word ‘ghost’ does convey a hint of the elusiveness and mystery of this aspect of God—a haunting presence, not within our power to analyse or capture in doctrinal formulae. Now this very elusiveness is instructive. It serves as a reminder that we haven’t taken in the whole truth about God. It’s not that God has held back information. He has told us all there is to know, unveiled the fullness of the godhead; but we are simply not equipped to take it in. Our highest flights of intellect and of imagination offer no more than a pale reflection of a shadow of the glorious reality, an echo of a stammered whisper of the truth—and God, the Holy Spirit, makes that clear to us. We may think we’ve got God the Father taped, and God the Son all weighed and measured; but God the mysterious Spirit slips between the fingers of our definitions and instructs us not to be so cocky. God is assuredly closer than breathing, nearer than hands or feet—but He’s beyond our intellectual grasp, our spiritual reach. We know, at best, in part—so Pentecost reminds us.
Yet having said all that, there are a lot of things that can be stated with assurance about God the Holy Spirit. I maybe can’t define the Holy Spirit, or describe the relationship between the Father and the Spirit, and the Son and the Spirit; but I can say a good deal, with the Bible’s help, about the doings of the Spirit.
I want to offer three one-syllable verbs, and to say first that the Holy Spirit props. He is, in the translation of the GNV, the helper. The Greek word here is parakletos, which finds its way into some of our hymns as paraclete; and it means literally, someone who is summoned to give help. Outside the NT it’s used, for instance of an advocate who is called on to plead in court for the accused; or of a medical consultant who is asked for a ‘second opinion’. It’s used to mean a morale-builder, someone put in to straighten the backs of a dispirited army unit, or to put heart into a struggling team. So this word picture of the Holy Spirit gives us the impression of a skilled and able helper, whose duty it is to bring assistance and encouragement to any child of God in trouble. ‘The Helper will come’ said Jesus. ‘I will send Him to you from the Father’ and Acts, the story of the infant church, Acts has many instances of how the Holy Spirit helped the church and little groups within the church, and individual Christians. Some were helped, we’re told, with power, especially with power for the task that God had laid upon them; and some, again, were helped with courage for the crisis as they faced authority or a potential lynch mob; and some, we read, were given gladness in the midst of their adversities—like the believers of Antioch who were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit props us up—gives us an undergirding strength and confidence. I read recently of the Head of the Dominican Order of Friars, the world-wide Roman catholic order which some would place nearest to our Reformed way of thinking. This man was elected to his post partly on the strength of his claim, made during a selection interview, that in spite of holding posts of high responsibility for many years, he had never lost a night’s sleep through anxiety. He did his best—then left the rest to God. He seems to me a splendid specimen of those whom utterly dependably the Spirit props.
My second word is that the Holy Spirit prompts. We’re told repeatedly within the Book of Acts that men like Peter, Paul and Stephen got their words, convincing, challenging, persuasive words from God the Holy Spirit. The Spirit, for example, gave to Stephen ‘such wisdom that when he spoke, his accusers could not refute him’.
Now these are authentic Biblical examples of the Spirit’s typical and constant prompting of God’s people, right down to our own time. He helps us to say the right things in worship, and in our attempts to speak up for the faith and in our personal relationships. He helps us to say the right things because He is the Spirit of truth, who teaches us the truth.
‘The Holy Spirit will teach you everything’, promises Jesus, and goes on to say how—‘He will remind you of all that I have told you’. The Holy Spirit is not an alternative source of truth offering another Gospel. What He does is bring to mind and relate to our situation words of eternal life already spoken by the Master; and thoughts about the Man of Galilee who was the Word of God.
The Holy Spirit recalls Jesus’ words, and He interprets Jesus’ words. ‘He will take what is mine’, Jesus foretold, ‘and declare it unto you’. The Holy Spirit helps us understand what Jesus said and work it out in practice, and see its implications and its applications. It’s simple fact that Jesus in His lifetime never said a word about, say, nuclear energy or contraception or genetic engineering or space exploration; but He did say things that have a bearing on these modern issues, laid down enduring principles, set out unchangeable priorities—nd it belongs to God the Holy Spirit to connect Christ’s timeless words to the dilemmas and perplexities of this specific and particular time. ‘I have yet many things to say to you’, said Jesus to His friends around the supper table in the upper room—just hours before his death! I have yet many things to say to you! He keeps that promise through the Holy Spirit, speaking to each generation what it needs to hear from the abiding treasury of wisdom in the Gospels.
The Holy Spirit prompts; and finally, the Holy Spirit prods. That sounds a bit aggressive, I agree. The Holy Spirit’s sometimes called the comforter in older versions of the Bible, and again, in many of our hymns; and that’s a lovely word and paints a lovely picture—but it’s just a shade misleading. The word ‘comforter’ means literally ‘giver of courage’, encourager. Its original emphasis is nicely illustrated in the famous Bayeux Tapestry, where a picture is captioned—in Latin—William comforts his troops—and the picture shows William the Conqueror prodding a reluctant squaddie in the posterior with the point of his sword. That is part of what the Holy Spirit does and always has done. Acts has been called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit, and certainly there is a sense in which the Holy Spirit writes the script. No great decision of the early church was reached without the guidance of the Spirit, no pioneering step was taken, no new enterprise was launched. We’re told specifically that it was the Spirit who pushed Philip to speak to the Ethiopian official, and so make the first missionary advance of the church; that it was the Spirit who moved Peter, stalwart Jew, to welcome and baptise the Gentile soldier Cornelius; the Spirit who inspired the first missionary tours of Paul and Barnabas; the Spirit that guided the first Council of the church at Jerusalem to endorse the admission of Gentiles; the Spirit that led Paul to Europe and in time to Rome.
It seems that just as soon as early Christians thought that they could settle down, had reached their target and fulfilled all righteousness—the Spirit prodded, changed the static into the dynamic once again. And that is still a function of the Spirit in the church today—to prod us out of ruts, before the ruts are graves; to keep us thinking about ways to deepen fellowship or strengthen youth work or reach out to the unnumbered hosts of the unchurched; to prod us one by one about our personal discipleship—the service that we offer and the witness that we bear. Perhaps He’s prodding someone here this morning in connection with a duty or a piece of service—and if you’re that person, then be glad, because the prodding means that God the Spirit is alive and well and living in you.
Don’t be worried if you can’t be too precise about the nature of the Holy Spirit; but wait with openness and expectation—and you will certainly be propped and prompted and prodded, to the blessing and enrichment of your Christian lives.