Sculpture of the Holy Sprit as a dove, St Nikolauskirche (Mittelescehnbach), Wikimedia Commons

It’s easy to think that Jesus ministered for three years and then the Holy Spirit showed up on Pentecost. In fact, Jesus’ earthly ministry could not have happened without the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowered Jesus the same way he empowers believers today. In part, that means mostly operating in the background.

Some thoughts on the Trinity

Holy Spirit window by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome (1660s) / Antoine Taveneaux via Wikimedia Commons 

Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the second and third persons of the Trinity. Now, don’t think of the Trinity as some complication dreamed up by theologians that only professional intellectuals can grasp. It forms the background for all of what God has revealed about himself.

I need to start with just a taste of what it means.

John 1:1-3 (NIV) says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

Note that at the beginning, the Word already existed. The Word was with God and was God. That is, it is possible to distinguish God and the Word but not separate them. No created thing exists apart from the Word’s creative activity.

John 1:14 says. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:17-18 further says, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”

Genesis 1:1-2 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

Here, God and the Spirit of God can be distinguished but not separated. John 1 does not mention the Holy Spirit, but Genesis mentions the Holy Spirit before God speaks the Word.

The Trinity in the birth of Jesus

The uncreated Word/Son of God and the uncreated Spirit of God took part with God in the creation of the world, but they are not three gods. They are one God, manifest in three eternal, uncreated persons. The Word/Son became flesh and was named Jesus.

And where was the Holy Spirit? In Luke 1, Gabriel told Mary she would be mother of the savior while still a virgin. In verse 35, he explained, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.“

In other words, we speak of Father and Son by analogy with human family relations, but the analogy only works so far. Mary became pregnant as a virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit as well as the power of the Most High (Father).

Here’s another analogy that can be helpful as long as we don’t try to push it too far. God has two hands. The dominant hand is Jesus, the Son. Jesus is dominant not by being stronger or in any way more able, but only by being more obvious.

Years ago, a friend told me that God gave him a left hand only as a place for his watch and his wedding ring. That he often needed to use both hands escaped his attention.

It’s the same with the ministry of Jesus. Jesus himself claimed that he did nothing on his own but only what he saw the Father doing. He spoke only what the Father spoke. But as we look through Scripture (both the Old and New Testament), we see the ministry of the Holy Spirit in pointing Jesus to the Father.

The Holy Spirit in the earthly ministry of Jesus

The Baptism of Christ / Pietro Perugino, 1480s, in Sistine Chapel

As Jesus left the water of baptism, he was full of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit sent him into the wilderness for a forty-day fast to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4: 1).

Explicitly, he went at the Spirit’s direction for the purpose of temptation. Implicitly, he emerged victorious because the Holy Spirit filled him. All his life, Jesus lived a sinless life “through the eternal Spirit” (Hebrews 9:14).

In prophesying that a fruitful Branch would emerge from the stump of Jesse, Isaiah foretold that the Spirit of God would rest on him (Isaiah 11:1-2). The last half of Isaiah contains four Servant Songs. In the first Servant Song, God declares, “I will put my Spirit on him” (that is, the Servant—Isaiah 42:1). According to Matthew 12:17-18, Jesus’ ministry fulfilled all that Isaiah said in that verse and three that follow.

As John puts it, God sent his beloved Son to speak his words by giving him the Spirit without measure (John 3:34)—the entire Trinity expressed in a single verse.

Jesus not only spoke God’s word by the power of the Holy Spirit, but that is also how he performed his miracles. In Matthew 12:27-28, Jesus told his Pharisee critics, “And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

Three days after Jesus’ death, he was raised from the dead. Paul specifies that it happened by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11). After walking with his disciples for forty days, and just before his ascension, he gave them instructions through the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:2). Among other things, he told them to stay in Jerusalem until they received the gift the Father had promised: the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit in the life of the church

Ten days later, on Pentecost, 120 people gathered in one place “were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” Acts 2:4).

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 12-14 to explain tongues and the other gifts of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, he lists nine gifts that he calls the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. In other words, nine things the Holy Spirit does when he wants to make his presence known.

But just as it’s possible to read right past the activity of the Holy Spirit in the gospels, it’s possible to read past it in much of Acts and the epistles. It’s possible to be present at a manifestation of the Holy Spirit—or even be the person who receives it—and not consciously recognize it as such.

The Holy Spirit moves among us today the same way he moved in the life of Jesus: to guide our words and deeds, to guard against falling into temptation, and empower us to live godly lives. He does so not by calling attention to himself but pointing to the example of Jesus. We might as well keep our eyes open to notice him at least some of the time.