Paul wrote in Romans concerning the life within us. He says:
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Romans 8.9-11
The purpose of God then is to have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you that the Holy Spirit might be moulding you into the person who God wants you to be. It’s the process called ‘sanctification’.
After you’re born of the Spirit, God wants to change you from the person you were before you became a believer in Jesus, into the person who God wants you to be. He does this by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, in Jesus Christ.
We saw last week that the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament moves upon people, comes upon them by the Spirit as God raises up people to lead and to guide the people of God, speaks through Moses, through the Prophets, through the elders of Israel, and He speaks in the scriptures through the prophets who were moved by the Holy Spirit to write down the things which they wrote.
Prophets also foretell the coming of the Messiah who would be filled with the Holy Spirit and give us also a prophecy of the Holy Spirit being poured out upon all flesh.
So, let’s have a look at what it says in the New Testament.
Today we’re going to look at what we see in the Gospels concerning the Holy Spirit leading up to the day of Pentecost which I won’t go into. We’ll look at that next week, and next week we will look at the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and subsequently, in the Book of Acts.
Coming to the New Testament and the Gospels, we see that Jesus tells us about the Holy Spirit. He tells us He is going to come and dwell within us, make us the people God wants us to be.
He tells us to be to be born of the Spirit and to be baptized, to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we have Christ in us, the hope of glory. That’s the purpose of God for each one of us:
He (God) wants to have God formed in us by the Holy Spirit.
Tony Pearce
I have said that we can’t work it out ourselves, that we can’t make ourselves to be the person He wants us to be, we have to receive It from God. Then, we have God’s Spirit dwelling within us to change us from the person who we were to the person who God wants us to be.
When we look through the Gospels, we can see that the Holy Spirit is involved right through in the incarnation, in the ministry, and in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Right back to the birth of Jesus in Matthew 1 verse 18 it says:
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 1.18
A unique event took place when the Holy Spirit came upon Miriam, mother of Jesus, and Jesus was incarnated in her womb supernaturally by the work of the Holy Spirit.
And when the angel came to reveal this to Miriam, she said: how can this be? And the angel answered her in Luke chapter 1 verse 35:
And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
Luke 1.35
The incarnation of Jesus was by the Holy Spirit.
Tony Pearce
Interestingly, Jesus’ forerunner also had some connection with the Holy Spirit in John the Baptist. In Luke chapter 1, as John was conceived in the womb of Elizabeth who had been barren up to that time, the angel said to his father Zacharias, that his son will be filled with the Spirit even from his mother’s womb.
For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.
Luke 1.15
So John, would demonstrate a different dimension if you like, to be filled with the Spirit even from his mother’s womb. Even as he was in the womb of his mother, he was filled with the Holy Spirit.
You have a very interesting little detail which often people miss but which, I think, is fascinating, in the fact that John was conceived six months before Jesus. Miriam became pregnant with Jesus six months after Elizabeth did.
And we read in the Gospel of Luke that Mary went to visit Elizabeth at her home and, this time, Mary was just pregnant with the seed within her, Jesus, was just a tiny, tiny little baby and Elizabeth was six months pregnant with John. It says:
And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Luke 1.41
How did the babe leap in her womb?
Well, it says John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit always bears witness to Jesus.
Tony Pearce
So, when Mary came into the room with Jesus in her womb, the baby John, in Elizabeth’s womb, leapt for joy because he recognized Jesus coming into the room.
Isn’t that amazing? It just tells you something about the work of the Holy Spirit and the supernatural power which is behind all of this. That Jesus is indeed God with us, God, Emmanuel, God in the flesh.
We see that John the Baptist himself also had a ministry when he began preaching to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus and one of the things which John said concerning Jesus in Luke 3 verse 16 is:
John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Luke 3.16
Therefore, John knew that Jesus was going to come and that Jesus was going to bring something which he called ‘the Holy Spirit’, some Person called the Holy Spirit who Jesus was going to baptize them with: the Holy Spirit.
And only a little later, Jesus comes to John and asks to be baptized by him. John says: You should baptize me, but He says: No, let it be done to fulfil all righteousness.
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” 15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. 16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 3.13-17
As Jesus is baptized in water, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all come together so that Jesus is anointed and confirmed as He is about to begin His ministry.
Another fascinating scripture if you really understand what He’s talking about. Chapter 3 verse 22 of Luke says:
And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”
Luke 3.22
So the Father speaks from heaven and says you are my beloved Son, the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus and comes upon Him like a dove as He is baptized in water, as Jesus then begins His public ministry.
You have this confirmation of Jesus by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as he begins His public ministry. And it says:
Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
Luke 4.1
Then, later, in verse chapter 4 verse 14 of Luke’s Gospel, it says:
14 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. 15 And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. 16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken hearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” 20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4.14-21
Another amazing event taking place in the life of the Lord Jesus. Note that it says He went to the synagogue as was his custom. This is telling you, of course, that Jesus was Jewish, and that He kept the Jewish customs.
He was going to a synagogue where He was known and they gave Him the scroll of the Book of Isaiah to read which would be the ‘Torah reading’ if you like; in modern terms, you read from the prophet. And it just so happened that it opened up at this prophecy from Isaiah chapter 61. Then, Jesus reads these words that you’ve just heard: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor.
Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel, to bring good news to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives; incredibly, to give sight to the blind, to set at liberty those repressed, and to proclaim the acceptable Year of the Lord.
In the next verse in Isaiah, it actually says: and to say and the day of vengeance of our God
It’s interesting that Jesus actually stops at this point, because, at this point, He has come as the Messiah to bring the good news of salvation.
At His Second Coming, He’s going to come to bring the day of vengeance of our God, the day when He will judge the world in righteousness according to how we have responded to the Gospel message.
But, even those fascinating little details in the scriptures tell you something about the ministry of Jesus. That He came at this time to bring good news.
He’s still bringing good news. If you want to believe in Jesus, you can have your sins forgiven, you can have an eternal life, you have a hope for the future and He will comfort you in your distress, and He’ll help you in your life to live a life pleasing to Him.
As Jesus closed the Book, He gave it to the attendant and said: today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, 3 To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
Isaiah 61.1-3
Therefore, Jesus was saying: this is about me. This scripture, which was written by Isaiah 700 years or so previously, is actually a prophecy of Jesus the Messiah coming in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring a message of good news.
We see that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and it all points towards Jesus as the Messiah when He comes to be anointed by the Holy Spirit.
Tony Pearce
Commenting on Jesus’ ministry in Acts chapter 10, Peter, speaking to Cornelius, says:
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
Acts 10.38
And we read right through the Gospels how Jesus did just that. He went and preached the Gospel, brought the good news, healed the sick, drove out demons, gave new life to people, even raised the dead, and showed that He was the Messiah by the works that He did.
How did He do those powerful works?
a) Because He is God Himself, and
b) because He had the Holy Spirit working upon Him.
And they were demonstrations of the fact that Jesus is God, Emmanuel, God with us, that He is the One who can minister in areas where we can’t minister because He is God and He made us in the first place.