What Does the Holy Spirit Do?

Who is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is a divine person, one of the three persons of the Trinity, as described in the well-known benediction which affirms that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit can be ours. The Holy Spirit possesses the same attributes as the Father and the Son. The three persons act in harmony together, although each of them has different roles.

When is the Spirit first mentioned in the Bible?

It used to be common to say that the first mention in the Bible of a topic gives insight into how we should understand it. I cannot say if that is always the case. If we consider the first mention of the Holy Spirit, we will see some important emphases. The Holy Spirit is first mentioned in the second verse of the first chapter of Genesis where he is likened to a bird hovering over her young, except that he is hovering or brooding over the waters that cover the earth. 

Right away we can see that the Holy Spirit has a particular role. we can also see his omnipresence because he is brooding over all the waters. The illustration also points to him giving life to the earth so that it was ready when God gave all the subsequent commands for various forms of life to appear. So that first mention suggests to us to think about life when we think of the work of the Spirit. The life may be physical or spiritual.

Does the verse indicate anything else about the Holy Spirit? That verse in Genesis is not the only time that the Spirit is likened to a bird because when he descended on Jesus at his baptism he was likened to a dove. The metaphor points to gentleness on the part of the Spirit. So we can think of his gentleness as we consider some aspects of his work.

The reference to the Spirit and his work suggest that he is the one of the Three that works closest on the creation. We can see that aspect in several ways in the Bible – he regenerates, he indwells, he sanctifies, he enlightens, etc. I want us to think over the next few weeks on the Holy Spirit in the Christian life. Today, we can consider what he does at the commencement. We can mention four of his activities.

Convicts of sin

First, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins. What does conviction of sin include? First, there is a realisation that a person has sinned against God by falling short of his standards. An individual becomes aware that he has sinned against the Lord whereas before then he was not concerned about it. The degree of falling short may play some role in the response of the person. Someone who has lived an overtly sinful life usually will have a more intense conviction experience in comparison to a person who has not lived in such a way.

Second, the person under conviction by the Spirit now regrets his sinful ways and does so for different reasons. If he sinned against a person, he regrets doing so and may want to admit to it. But his main issue is that he wants to be forgiven his sins. He knows that he has sinned against the Lord and that the Lord is the only one who can forgive him in the sense of him receiving pardon. Both his realisation and his regret come about because of the Holy Spirit’s work in his soul.

A third feature of this conviction of sin is that the sinner has more than regret in his reaction; he also is repentant. His whole heart is involved in this response. His mind and his affections and his recollections are marked by this new reaction to himself, and his new reaction is done in the presence of God. He realises the stupidity of sin and is aware of the threatened punishment he is under because of it. He realises the solemnity of sin which he has committed against the sovereign God, the God who gave him life and has upheld him in being despite his sinfulness. Nevertheless, he finds himself being drawn towards the God he has offended. From the Lord alone can mercy be received. The sinner’s concern is to receive pardon and he may wonder how that can happen. This leads us to consider the second activity of the Holy Spirit at this stage, which is that he reveals Christ to sinners.

Christ revealed

Jesus explained to his disciples what the Holy Spirit would do when he came as the Comforter, the one who would be the same as Jesus and yet different from him. The Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, especially the sin of not believing on Jesus. This must mean that before that change happens, those people must hear about Jesus and what he has done for sinners. The Bible tells us that Jesus did various things for sinners – he healed some of them, he fed others in a miraculous way, he taught them about the kingdom of God, and he spoke to all kinds of sinners about the great plan of salvation. Jesus is no longer here on earth, but the Spirit is his agent bringing his story to the minds of sinners.

The Holy Spirit shows people that Jesus is a suitable Saviour. In what way is that the case? He is suitable in that his salvation meets the needs of sinners. Most of us have heard the gospel numerous times and should be able to say what those needs are. Basically, they are twofold. We need to live a perfect life and we need to provide payment for our sins. We can do neither, but the good news is that Jesus provided both for sinners.

The Holy Spirit also reveals that Jesus was a suffering Saviour. By this, I mean that the Holy Spirit shows to us what it cost the Saviour in order to make payment for our sins. The Bible describes how sinners will mourn when they look on him whom they have pierced. How does the Spirit enable us to see the sufferings of Christ? He does it in his Word as he describes the intensity of Jesus' suffering as well as giving information about the cause of his suffering as well as its outcome. We get great sights of the cross when reading Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53.

The Holy Spirit also shows us that Jesus is a sympathetic Saviour, one who relates to us in certain ways because he is a man as well as God, a real man and highly exalted in heaven. While he never sympathises with our sins, he is aware of our weaknesses, and he desires to help us to overcome them. His help is not confined to what he did at the cross, although all his subsequent activities are connected to it. The Spirit shows to sinners that Jesus has been exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, one who is full of mercy and compassion, one who is willing to abundantly pardon those who have sinned against God.

Comes to indwell

The third activity of the Spirit at that time is to commence indwelling the new Christian. Jesus promised the disciples that, when he would send the Spirit to his people after his ascension to heaven, he would not only be with them, but would also be in them. This description is very intriguing. What does it mean?

First, it means that every believer has the great privilege of having a divine person with him all the time. Once he comes to indwell a sinner, the Holy Spirit will remain with that sinner throughout his life. Wherever that sinner will go, so also will the Indweller. Obviously, that should be a life-changing reality. I would imagine it would make a difference to watching the TV or having an argument when one realises the Spirit is also there with us. Sometimes we wonder where the Spirit will take us, but it might help us to consider where we have taken him day after day.

Second, Jesus does not say that the Holy Spirit will only indwell some parts of the believer. The illustration indicates that each believer is a house in which the Spirit will live. Even as a house is composed of several rooms, so there are several locations within a believer where the Spirit intends to dwell. What are those rooms? We can identify them as the heart, the mind, the affections and the will. The heart includes the other three within its identity. So our minds, affections and choices should reflect the values and desires of the One who lives within us if we are believers. The Spirit will speak to us about what is going on in each of the rooms in our hearts.

Third, it is usually the desire of those sharing a home that each of them will be happy. If one of them is not happy, then tensions can arise. That is true at all levels of contact within a home, whether between parents and children or between the husband and wife. The heart of a Christian has been renewed, but it is not perfect. It is possible for the believer to grieve the Spirit who is resident in him. This grieving is his response to expressions of sin that a believer may indulge in. When that happens, the believer will be chastised until he repents of whatever is grieving the Holy Spirit.

Restoration by the Spirit is a good experience. But we should consider what life is like for the gracious Spirit who indwells us freely and lovingly, with the aim of sanctifying us and leading us to become like Jesus.

Connects us to the church

The fourth activity of the Spirit is one that perhaps we do not think about very often. Paul reminded the Corinthians of this activity when he wrote these words: ‘For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit’ (1 Cor. 12:13). Whatever the term ‘baptism’ means here, we can see that it involves sinners being brought into the church by the work of the Spirit at the moment of their salvation.

This happens to all Christians whoever they are and whatever their status in society is. It did not matter if a person previously was a religious Jew or a pagan Gentile, when he believed he immediately became part of the church. Nor did it matter what his status was, and there were only two kinds of people at that time, slaves and free, and both kinds were given a place in the church when they believed. They now belong to a new body in which the old groupings are of no significance. It is a great privilege to belong to the church of Christ.

The church is the body which is given heavenly supplies. We can see that is the case from Paul’s description that all those who are joined to the body ‘drink of one Spirit’. The implication is that outside the body, the world is dry, but inside the church of Christ there is abundant refreshment. Jesus on one occasion described the effect that would happen when a person became a believer – out of his inner man would flow rivers of living water.

The verb ‘drink’ points to activity by the believer. When a person is literally thirsty, he will go to the place where his thirst is assuaged. There would be no point in him assuming that somehow the refreshing water would come to him. Instead he has to go to it. The same is true in the spiritual life. We have to make use of the means of grace, and the Spirit has made it straightforward for us to do so. Those means include public and personal ways of receiving grace from heaven and we need all of them to live as we should in God’s sight.

Conclusion

The conclusion of this sermon is obvious. What we need to do is consider the four matters we have thought about. We can focus on them separately, perhaps taking one whenever we have a quiet time, or taking more than one on such occasions. We can ask ourselves if our conviction of sin includes the realisation that we have sinned against God and whether we have repented of our sins. We can also ask ourselves if we find Jesus to be a suitable, suffering, sympathetic Saviour. The third question to ask ourselves is whether the Holy Spirit is happy to be in every room in our heart. Connected to that is the fourth question, how are we drinking in the Spirit, using the means of grace that he has provided?