Sinclair Ferguson (0:00)

I hope as we sit and study together about the Holy Spirit, there are moments when we say, thank you Lord, thank you for the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, you are far more wonderful than I ever imagined. And to think that Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.

Renewing Your Mind Host (0:21)

If you have ever enjoyed true fellowship with a loved one or a close friend, you realize how special those moments are, but also how rare they are as life gets in the way. Distractions, notifications, conflict. But there is one relationship in which none of those issues exist. This is the Friday edition of Renewing youg Mind. It's so good to have you with us. Sinclair Ferguson, the Vice Chairman of Ligonier Ministries, is our featured teacher this week and he has been helping us answer the question, who is the Holy Spirit? If you'd like to study this topic further, today is your final opportunity to to request this week's resource offer. When you give a donation@renewingyourmind.org before midnight tonight, we'll send you the entire 12 message series on DVD. Unlock the messages and study guide in the free Ligonier app, and send you RC Sproul's Crucial Questions booklet on the Holy Spirit. There's much confusion today surrounding the Holy Spirit, so I hope this week's messages and this resource offer is a great help to you and your family. So what was the relationship I mentioned earlier? Here's Dr. Ferguson with a message titled Trinitarian Fellowship.

Sinclair Ferguson (1:39)

We've taken as our theme really in these studies the words of Jesus to his disciples in John 14:17, where he speaks about the Father giving disciples another helper. He's speaking about the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you, the disciples, you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. And as we've been thinking about the ministry of the Spirit in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus in His conception and then in his childhood, then in his baptism and his temptations. One of the things that the Scriptures are trying to teach us here, and they do so with such great grace and power, that is that this is the Holy Spirit whom the disciples had actually come to know because he had been with them in the life and ministry of Jesus that had been true throughout the whole course of Jesus ministry. And I want in this study to look at several passages in the New Testament, first of all in the Gospel according to Luke, that underline for us that the Holy Spirit, who came on Jesus to equip him for public ministry, for His Messianic ministry at his baptism was with him and empowered him throughout the whole course of his work. And that was immediately obvious when Jesus, after his baptism, Luke 4:14, returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. A report went out about him through all the surrounding countryside. He taught in their synagogues and was glorified by all. It's actually a marvelous little description, a kind of snapshot of the truth about the Lord Jesus. How in the power of the Spirit he reveals God, and how through the ministry of the Spirit, we are encouraged indeed by the Spirit's power, enabled to glorify the Lord. We are told almost immediately afterwards what happens. Jesus goes and he preaches in the synagogue in Nazareth. 4:16. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolls the scroll and found the place where it was written. Now, whether this was the reading in the lectionary or whether Jesus was finding this place very deliberately himself, it was an amazing passage for him to expound at the beginning of his public ministry. And he was actually able to do it rather briefly and was forced to do it rather briefly. The words of Isaiah 61, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, proclaim liberty to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind liberty to those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, sat down and said, today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. And he preached what I sometimes call the sermon that created the shortest first ministry in the history of the Christian church. They wanted to try and kill him because what he had said was all the way through the Old Testament Scriptures until Isaiah was standing on the pinnacle of Old Testament revelation. Revelation. Looking forwards into the future, we have been expecting the Spirit filled Messiah and Savior to come. I am He. And it is fascinating, isn't it, to see that this passage in Isaiah that spoke about the empowerment of the Holy Spirit was the very passage that Jesus did actually fulfill during the course of his ministry in the power of the Spirit. It was through the power of the Spirit that he was enabled to release people from their bondage in sin. Because the Spirit anointed him, he was able to bring assurance to oppressed people that their guilt could be taken away. I forgive your sins, he was able to say. And not only that, but he was able to bring restoration. He comes like the new man, the second Adam, to the fight and to the rescue comes. And what he does is he comes to those who have been broken and bruised by the fall. Some are blind, some are deaf, some are dumb, some are crippled, some are paralyzed. He doesn't heal everybody, but he does switch on the light in history to give us brief glimpses of what he will do at the end of history when he brings his salvation and redemption to pass in its fullness and restores and resurrection power men and women who know and trust him to what God created them to be. And he's already given glimpses of this during the course of his ministry. And he is also delivering those who are oppressed. And so the Gospel narratives are punctuated with Jesus coming to those who are possessed by demons and setting them free from this satanic oppression that is the result of the bondage that Satan has created since the time of the fall. Now, I wonder if you have ever recognized the fact that that there are really very few references to demons in the Bible. There are Christians of a certain kind who will say the Bible is full of demons and demon possession and exorcisms. There are actually very few of them in the Bible. The notable thing is this, that most of them are found in one small land in the course of three years in the ministry of Jesus. Think about the Gadarene demoniac. Remember his name was Legion because there was a legion, a Roman legion of demons in him. How many demons does it take to oppress a man, to drive a man to destruction? It takes only one. So why was there an entire Legion there? Because Jesus was there. One of the things that you see immediately if you place the Gospel narrative within the context of the whole of the Bible is that there is an especially powerful activity of the demonic world in the Holy Land during the period of Jesus public ministry. Why? Because this is their last opportunity to destroy God's saving purposes. And Jesus has come and he has defeated their master. And because he's defeated their master, they know that the end has drawn near. And so you remember, they cry out to Jesus, have you come to destroy us before the time? They have this sense of foreboding. And all of this Jesus does in the power of the Holy Spirit. And he actually makes that clear in Luke 11:20, doesn't he, when speaking about the miracles that he has performed, he tells us that he has done these things by the power of the Holy Spirit. If it is by the finger of God, which is just another way of speaking about the Holy Spirit. We know that because the Holy Spirit is actually mentioned in parallel statements. If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. So here is the king empowered by the Holy Spirit. And he is entering into his kingdom and defeating all of his enemies. It is very helpful for us, I think, to understand that what Jesus does in his ministry, he does as the second man and the last Adam. Not by transferring powers from his divine person to his human nature that would have made him not true man, but some kind of mixture of God and man, but by his perfect dependence on the Holy Spirit his Father had given to him in order that he might be empowered to be our Savior. You know, we need to find reasons in Scripture to love the Holy Spirit. We love the Father as Christians, we love the Son as Christians. But you see, the Bible is teaching us that there's wonderful reason to love the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit has empowered Jesus to set us free. There's one other little passage in Luke's Gospel that I think is noteworthy in this connection. It's in Luke chapter 10 and in verse 21, Jesus has sent out his disciples, a larger group than the apostles. He sent out his disciples, and they have come back absolutely thrilled at what God has done. Through their ministry, Jesus has empowered them to bring the message of the kingdom of God. And they're absolutely thrilled. We are told when they return, and they say, even the demons are subject to us and in your name. And Jesus responded, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. But don't rejoice in that. Rejoice in the fact that your names are written in heaven. Power gifts are not necessarily signs of saving grace. So rejoice rather, he says, in the fact that your names are written in heaven. And then in that context, these beautiful words in Luke 10:21. In that same hour, Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. And no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Then just suddenly, here in Luke's Gospel, Jesus brings us into a different order of being altogether, doesn't he? As he's seen the power of the Holy Spirit at work through his disciples, he rejoiced not just rejoiced in his own spirit, but rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. Just a little indication, a kind of moment, a very special snapshot into the relationship that by and large is hidden under the surface of the Gospels. But here bursts forth that Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. Wouldn't you love to know what was going on in his mind, what he was saying? You know, I hope as we sit and study together about the Holy Spirit, there are moments when we say, thank you, Lord. Thank you for the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, you are far more wonderful than I ever imagined. And to think that Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. You know, I'm not a Native American, and sometimes when I go back to Scotland and see old friends, I say to them, it's just great to be with somebody that you don't need to explain yourself to, because we've known each other all our lives now. Think about sharing a moment of joy with somebody you don't need to explain yourself to. You don't need to explain your prehistory. You don't need to say, the reason I'm so happy is because of this. But you never knew that. And so I need to explain this to you. But here is the Lord Jesus with the Holy Spirit, who has been present in his life since the moment of his conception. He doesn't need to explain anything to the Holy Spirit. He rejoices in the Holy Spirit. He is marveling at what the Holy Spirit is doing. And then he goes on, you notice, to thank the Father for this. So here's one of those great moments in the Gospels. There are more of them in John's Gospel than there are in the other Gospels. But here's one of those moments in the Gospels where we see Jesus in communion with the Holy Spirit, experiencing ecstatic joy and in communion with his Heavenly Father, thanking his Heavenly Father. But the Father has worked through the Spirit and in such a way as to bring men and women to faith in the Lord Jesus. That has given Jesus joy in the Holy Spirit and thankfulness to his Heavenly Father. So this is a moment of moments in the Gospel. And this is why later on in Luke's gospel, in Luke 12:10, Jesus will say that it's one thing to speak against the Son of Man. It's possible to speak against the Son of Man and be forgiven. That's a forgivable sin. But the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. What's he talking about? He's talking about that resistance to the ministry of the Holy Spirit that refuses to recognize that the power of the kingdom of God has been released in the Lord Jesus and refuses to yield to the Lord Jesus and to trust in the Lord Jesus. And the reason this sin cannot be forgiven is actually found in these earlier words. When Jesus experiences joy because of what the Spirit is doing, Jesus thanks the Father for what the Spirit is doing. The Father is present with Jesus in what the Spirit is doing. So when one resists the Holy Spirit, one is resisting God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and refusing to allow the Lord Jesus joy isn't that simple difference between being a Christian and not being a Christian. However we struggle, however we fall, however we sin, as Christians we have, by God's grace, a longing that our lives should bring joy to the Lord Jesus, but to refuse joy to the Lord Jesus, why is that such a heinous sin? It's because bringing joy to the Lord Jesus is what the Heavenly Father most wants. For the joy that was set before him. Jesus endured the cross and despised the shame. God has exalted him and given him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that he is Lord to the glory of God to the Father. The Father's desire is that Jesus should have inexpressible joy. And to resist the Holy Spirit, who seeks to bring that joy to Jesus by bringing us in faith and in humility to Jesus, is to commit that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit that will sadly never be forgiven. And in all this we should not forget what Luke had taught us in Luke Chapter two, when he said that Jesus grew in favor with God and man throughout the whole course of his life, as greater pressures were brought to bear upon him, greater temptations came his way, greater challenges. As the Lord Jesus in the power of the Spirit overcame these challenges, he grew more and more and more in favor with his Heavenly Father. That's what the Spirit was doing. You think about it this way. The Spirit was saying, I'm going to enable Jesus in his humanity so to fulfill all obedience and all faith. That the Father will be able to say, as it were, from time to time, lord Jesus, you are growing in favor with me. That shouldn't be too difficult for us to understand, especially if we're parents and if we're boys. We love our boys when they're six. But as they overcome difficulties, as they have their little achievements and doesn't our heart grow in love and affection for them because there's so much more to love. I sometimes say at wedding services, you too are standing there thinking, never man loved a woman the way I love this woman, and never woman loved a man the way I love this man. But if you don't come back in 10 years time and tell me I had no idea what I was thinking on that day. You still haven't begun really to understand what marriage is all about. It's not that we don't love the other and then come to love the other. It's that we love the other with all our hearts. But as we get to know them, we have more and more reason to love them. And isn't it interesting how Jesus himself says that the fathers love for him and favor for him as the Holy Spirit sustained him in his obedience was never greater than at that point when the Father's smile was turned away from his Son. Listen to Jesus words in John's Gospel. The reason my Father loves me is because I lay down my life for the sheep. That is the point at which, as it were, if we can describe it humanly with breaking heart, the Heavenly Father would be able to sing if ever I loved thee, my Jesus. Tis now. And you see, this is what the Holy Spirit is promoting. Not just that Jesus should be able to accomplish our salvation, but that the relationship that there has been from all eternity among the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, what if we could see it would be the unbearable intensity of ecstasy in mutual devotion and love that that should actually be manifested in the Lord Jesus, so that in him we see the wonder of the relationship between the Father and the Son because of the power of the Holy Spirit. And we begin to see the intimacy of the Lord Jesus with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit's intimacy with the Lord Jesus that fills us with awe and wonder when we remember that this is the Holy Spirit the Lord Jesus has given to us, and so his meekness, his grace, the way in which he exhibits these marvelous characteristics. 1 Corinthians 13 it's really a description of the Lord Jesus, isn't it? Paul's description of the fruit of the Spirit. It's really a description of the Lord Jesus, because the Spirit who was there right at the very beginning in his conception and in his growth, in the hiddenness, the secrecy, the darkness of the womb of this presumably teenage virgin girl and who sustained him in growth and childhood and brought him into the knowledge of the blessings of God more and more as he grew in human capacity and anointed him for ministry sustained him every moment, every hour, every day, watched over him while he slept, and then as he woke in the morning, instantaneously in communion, conscious communion with his Father by the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit. And as the Scriptures say in that beautiful little expression, he went about doing good because by the Spirit, the truth is, he is good. Remember the words in the Chronicles of Narnia when the little children ask in surprise if Aslan is safe, and they receive the answer safe. Of course he's not not safe. He's a lion. But he's good. He's very good. That's the fruit of the Spirit in the Lord Jesus. And that's why we love him. And that's the reason we love the Spirit.