Understanding what the scriptures say about the Holy Spirit
[Bittersweet, no matter how often I’ve been here at this conference Day 5 is filled with bittersweet feelings. In the immortal words of Ignite/BLT co-founder Ying Yee, ‘We’re exhausted and [hopefully] excited’ by God’s Word and God’s work in our lives, our churches, and the world. My strand group has been a delight to lead, conversations have been varied and deep, the talks have been monumentally helpful, and I’ve been delighted to recommend great books to people – praying that they will be read and applied joyfully in the lives of the readers. One more final talk and we’re done for another year – prayers for the strand groups and the delegates in the things that they have learned are appreciated!]
Morning Talk | John 5:19-30 | The Holy Spirit in Trinity | Tony Rowbotham
To understand another person, what must we know?
The way we grow to know someone is to hear them speak, to find out about them – to learn about their family. The best way to understand someone is to understand their family – because if you know that you know where they stand in relationship. To know someone in isolation is to know someone only in part.
If you want to understand the Holy Spirit you have to understand the Holy Spirit in the context of his relationships – and that is the Trinity. You cannot do justice to the knowledge of the Spirit without knowledge of the Trinity.
1. Relationships in the Trinity
Father and Son (5:19-30)
5:19 – Literally ‘the Son can do nothing by himself but can do only what he sees the Father doing’. Same idea is present in v30. This observation helps us to see what the Son can or cannot do – that Jesus can do only as the Father does, and nothing by himself.
In context Jesus has just done a miracle – a man has not been walking for years, and with a word Jesus helps this man to walk. But he gets into trouble because the miracle is done on the Sabbath, and also that he was calling God his own Father – making himself equal to God. The reaction of the Jews gives this away – they understand Jesus’ claim (even if we don’t).
We also see in this passage the Father has given the Son the right to judge and give life – and he does so by giving his Son authority (cf 5:24). Why? 5:20 – the Father loves the Son and shows him all that the Father does.
We see this also in Revelation 1:1 – God the Father gave the Son a revelation about himself. Didn’t the Son already know what he was on about? A pattern is established – the Father reveals to the Son, the Son reveals to us (in this case through an angel, in the NT through the Holy Spirit). This is the pattern of revelation (the revealing of God’s word).
The Father does this so that the Son will be honoured (cf 5:23) – and all who do not honour the Son do not honour the Father. Why does God give authority to judge and give life to Jesus? So that people will honour Jesus.
In Philippians 2 we read that everyone will honour Jesus – everyone will bow down to him – either in judgement or in worship.
5:30 – and so Jesus’ desire is to do the will of the One who sent him. We see this in 4:34 (my food is to do the will of him who sent me), 6:38 (I come from heaven not to do my will but the will of Him who sent me), 8:28-29 (I do nothing on my own, I speak only as the Father has taught me – I always do what pleases him), 17:4 (Jesus’ prays that he has glorified his Father by completing the work the Father has given him to do).
The Son obeys the Father in 14:31 is that he wants the world to know how much Jesus’ loves his Father – that the world may learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly as the Father has commanded me.
So we have this beautiful picture forming: who is at the centre of the universe of salvation and creation? The Father at the centre of all who points to his Son, and the Son who seeks to live only to please his Father, and we have the Spirit (in 16:13b-15) who only speaks what he hears from the Father and Son. We’re seeing here in the Trinity an other-person centred life. Each member of the Trinity wants to see the other glorified, expressed from love.
2. The Persons of the Trinity
Notice their roles – the Father does not obey the Son, the Spirit is not glorified like the Son, the Son does not seek to elevate his own personal will (not to say that he does not have a will). The persons of the Trinity are not interchangeable. [Yes! – Steven] And what we also see in the Trinity is not authoritarian and there is no subjugation. Instead we see loving authority, voluntary submission, mutual honouring, and love. Glory is when each person of the Trinity honours the other as appropriate for their personness. [Double yes!! – Steven]
Some applications.
First – love is at the centre of life because it is at the centre of the Trinity – which means love is at the centre of the Christian life. Love is best expressed when you love and seek the honour of others first. Love is not a gateway to self-indulgence, not a pathway to personal glory – but the life we are called to and the life that the Spirit helps us to live.
There are so many normal daily actions that are actions of love – volunteering to help car parking, those on rosters, choosing to chat someone who is alone, helping each other in our strand groups – love is at the centre of what we are called to do because it is the centre of who God is.
Second – freedom. Freedom is probably one of the highest values in Australia. We must not diminish another person’s capacity to freedom – do not tell me what to do and how to live, because if you do you are doing the wrong thing. It silences us when we feel the need to speak.
Consider Lady Gaga – a culture and trendsetter. In one of her lesser famous songs called ‘Hair’ her hair becomes a metaphor for freedom:
“I just wanna be myself
And I want you to love me for who I am
I just wanna be myself
And I want you to know, I am my hair
I’ve had enough, this is my prayer
That I’ll die livin’ just as free as my hair”
Freedom is what we have been trained to accept as the highest value.
But the truth is only God is truly free. And in his freedom the Father gives authority to his Son. The Son is free and lives to honour his Father. The Spirit is free and steps into the background so that the Son will be honoured. Each member of the Trinity is truly free – and true freedom from sin is freedom not to do whatever we want, but to seek the honour and love of another according to your personness.
Christ has set us free a Christians – from slavery and sin, from the Australian dream of freedom (which is actually slavery in itself). If you think that gap-year is the best thing you could do in life you’re thinking like an Australian and not like God. True freedom is found in who God has made us to be.
This could hurt sometimes. In Luke 22:42 the Son’s freedom hurts him – because doing the will of the Father at that moment (in the Garden of Gethsemane) was going to be costly.
Like in Netball – position determines how you play, what role you take, and what you can/should do.
The personness of each member of the Trinity shapes their work and what they do. And this is appropriate even for God. [Bam. – Steven] The Father is the originator from who all things come, and to whom all things will return (1 Cor 15), the Father sends the Son; the Son is sent, the Son obeys (the Father does not obey), he lives to seek the glory of the Father, to implement the Father’s plans and works because he is the Son; the Holy Spirit seeks the glory of the Son – that is what he wants! – he reveals the Son to us that we might be saved, and to help us say, ‘Jesus you are my Lord and you gave your life to me!’, he works through us to glorify the Son.
The glory of the Holy Spirit
See why the name of Father, Son and Spirit is important? We should maintain this language. There is in the revelation of God of the name of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).
Why is the third member of the Trinity called ‘Spirit’? Because Spirit does His work through others. The Spirit rests on and equips and directs Jesus’ mission. And so to the Spirit does the same to us – in us and through us. The Spirit is named so because his invisibility is actually important because he wants to place the focus on Christ, and he wants to do His work through others. This is the self-effacing nature of the Holy Spirit.
[Bam – what a fantastic talk helping us see the glory of the roles that each member of the Trinity freely and willingly take up.
Well that’s it, folks! Ignite talks are done. Thanks for following along, and prayerfully there will be more posts this coming year.]
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