John 14:16-18 (The
Personality of the Holy Spirit)
Intro:
Today we are beginning a series on the Person and ministry of the Holy Spirit
in the life of the believer!
A)As I have shared with you
before{ Jesus here in John’s gospel in Ch.14-16 – gives us some of the most
comprehensive studies and info into the Person and Ministry of the HS found in the scriptures
B) John Newton once compared
the Bible’s worth to other literature in this way:
“Some books are worth a penny- you have to take in so much quantity before you
find any value. There are other books of silver and some of gold. But the Bible
is a book of bank notes; every page is a bank note of immense value.”
C) That is how Spurgeon
described these passages on the HS bank notes of immense value –
We
live in ever changes times – The great need of the believer in our day and age
is to Walk in the Spirit and not the flesh
A) Live lives sensitive to
the voice of the spirit of God / so we can decipher the various voices grabbing
for our attention.
B) To live lives empowered
by the HS is our only chance of making a lasting impact in this age.
C)
So for the next several weeks we are going to take a close look at what the
Lord says about the HS in these chapters.
1)
Encourage you to take notes to pray in !
D)Goal is not JUST to make
sure our theology is clear – but that our theology might permeate our very
lives!
1)
Walk according to the HS leading – Impact our homes / marriages / relationships
–
2)
Ultimately our WORLD!
We
begin in
15“If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16And I will pray the
Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you
forever—17the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,
because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him,
for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18I will not leave
you orphans; I will come to you.
Jesus
is here in the upper room: Been saying some pretty Challenging things to his disciples
A)
B) One Betray/ All forsake/
Peter deny / I am leaving / Comfort – Heaven
C)
Here He tells His disciples if they really love Him – they will show it by
keeping His commandments – This is some
overwhelming stuff here
D) But here is the answer –
Jesus says – I will not leave you orphans –
1)
Not leaving you here to try & figure this out ALONE
2)
Not leaving us to ourselves { Not computer savvy
EDDIE / AARON
{ Helpers
E)I am going to send another
Helper – who will abide with you forever!
1)
Jesus says another: Literally Another of the same Kind ! – Same Stock Someone
JUST LIKE ME!
Now
there are THREE things that I want us to consider today:
1)
The Personality of the Holy Spirit.
2)
The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer.
3)
Why the carnal mind rejects the Holy Spirit.
We begin by
discussing the Personality of the HS.
A)Notice in the verses that
we just read that the personal pronouns He and Him are used – FIVE TIMES in ref to the HS
B) Personal
& it is masculine! When talking about the HS it is important that we
realize He is a PERSON
C)We
are Trinitarians – We believe in a Triune God!
Made
up of 3 Distinct persons – Father / Son / HS – 1) Distinct
yet One – Different – Yet equal
D)When God first made man,
he said, “Let us make man,” not let me, but, “Let us make man in
our own image.”
1) They
said to each other, “Let us together become the creator of man.”
So,
when in eternity, they said, “Let us save man:” it was not the Father who said,
“Let me save man, “
A)but the three persons as
one said, with one consensus, “Let us save man.”
B) Look at the text, and you
will find all the three persons mentioned.
1) “I” - that is the Son – “will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Counselor.”
C)There are the three
persons mentioned, all of them doing something for our salvation.
1)“I
will ask,” says the Son. “I will send,” says the Father.
2) “I will provide comfort and counsel,” says
the Holy Spirit.
Now
it is easy to think of the Father as a person, because his actions are such
that I can understand.
A) He is called the Father –
Image to us that is personal – Father – w/ His Children
B)
He refers to His people
C) He shows Love – He gives
mercy –
1) He is depicted as seeing
/ hearing / Heart for His people like a father has for His Children
D) Easy to Picture God the
Father as a person
I can Also comprehend
Jesus, the Son of Man, as a real person, because he is bone of my bone and
flesh of my flesh.
A)It
takes no great stretch of my imagination to picture the babe in
B) I read the gospels and I
see Him interacting as a man with men on a daily basis – taking Children into
his arms – touching/ speaking
1) It is Easy to comprehend.
C)But
when it comes to God the HS we can have a tough
time perceiving a Spirit as a person.
Often
times within the Christian Church the HS is communicated as This Electricity /
this Power / this Impersonal force
A)We talk about getting the Holy Ghost goose Bumps
We talk about
getting a Holy Ghost Charge up – like getting
our batteries Charged before we go out witnessing or around unbelievers
A)In
Some circles – the HS is seen as this impersonal Power
– thrown at the audience like a Frisbee - they fall over
B)Benny
Hinn – uses his coat to throw the HS at the Crowd or
Blow the HS on people
C)
Now here is the thing – we would never think throwing
God the Father or throwing Jesus at the Crowd –
1) But for some reason people talk about God the HS
in that way
Many
Make the HS out to be this esoteric force – Luke
Skywalker the Force be
w/ you Luke that makes You – do weird things
A)Watch some Christian TV –
turn sound off & watch what these people are supposedly doing under the
power of HS – Nuts
Spastic
B)This is wrong – we need to
understand – that the HS is the 3rd person of the Triune Godhead –
1) And although he doesn’t have a Body – He lacks no
personality
C)Not a force –
not electricity – He supplies
power but He is not A power
B)
The Holy Spirit has Personal Characteristics
1) He
loves:
2) He
has a mind:
3) He has will:
4) He can be lied to:
5) He
can be grieved :
6) He has
Knowledge:
C) Personal ACTS Ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
1) He
brings comfort
2) He speaks.
3) He
cries out.
4) He makes intercession.
5) He
gives testimony
6) He teaches all truth
7) He
leads believers.
8) He commands men.
9) He
searches out the deep things of God
{ Thru the Word}
D) So we see there are many
person Characteristics and personal actions ascribed to the HS
Now it
is important that we relate to the HS as a person – rather than a force
A) because it is then that we take the position of being passive instead of being
aggressive in our relationship
B)What I mean by that is this: If I view
the HS as a Force –
1)I
am wanting to Channel that force & tap into
that power / Harness it { ENERGY TO BE USED
C)But
if I View the HS as a person the 3rd person of the Triune Godhead I
want to be submitted to Him & Led by Him
D) I want to learn to be sensitive to His voice – I want to hear
His heart
E)
That my friends is at the crux of a successful Christian life! { Heart of Christianity !
1)
Living a life sensitive to the voice of the Spirit of God & responding
obediently to that voice
So the HS is the Living Spirit of God – the Literal Spirit of
Christ – Essence of Who He is – Residing in YOU AND ME!
That leads us to consider #2 The
indwelling of the HS
A)We
are told in the text, that Jesus would send the Helper, who would dwell with
the saints, and be in them forever.
B)Old Ignatius, the martyr,
used to call himself the Godbearer, “because,” he
said, “I bear within me the Holy Spirit.”
1)
And truly every Christian is a Godbearer.
“Don't you know that you yourselves are
God’s temple and that God's Spirit lives
in you?” [1 Cor. 3:16]
A)It
is hard to wrap our minds around this reality that Jesus is in us/ w/us – same
as He was w/ His Disciples
B) Text : HS is with you and
Shall be in You.
1) With – because In Jesus –
2) With
every man convicting/ Drawing
D) He
would be in them !
1) What we call being born
again – HS comes to dwell in our hearts thru faith!
Notice
Jesus said: Send another comforter – Another of the same kind – JUST LIKE ME –
same stuff
A)Jesus was the first Helper
{ HS is the 2nd occupying the same position as the living Jesus did.
B)It would not be easy to
describe all that Jesus was to his disciples when he dwelt among them.
1)
If we called him their “guide counselor, and friend,” we should but have begun
to list his attributes/ qualities
C)What a valiant leader is to an army, when his very
presence inspires them with valor,
1)
when his wisdom and tact he leads them to certain victory,
D)And when his influence
over them nerves and strengthens them in the day of battle;
1)
all that, and more, was Jesus Christ to his disciples.
What
the shepherd is to the sheep, the sheep being foolish, and the shepherd alone
wise;
A)the sheep being defenseless,
and the shepherd strong to protect them;
B)the sheep being without
power to provide for themselves in any degree,
1)and
the shepherd able to give them all they require; — all that was Jesus Christ to
his people.
C)
If You were to see Socrates in the midst of his pupils, and you observe at once
that the great philosopher is the Leader of his school;
D) but still some follower
of Socrates may improve upon what he teaches.
But
when you see Jesus, you observe at once that all his disciples are but as
little children compared with their Master,
A) And that the school would
cease at once if the great Teacher were gone.
B)He is not only the Founder
but the Finisher of our system.
1)Jesus
is to them not only the doctor but the
doctrine; “He is the way, and the truth, and the life.”
C) The disciple of Jesus
does not does not know how many uses
Christ can be put to, but this he knows — Christ is
all in all to him.
What would that little company of disciples have been as
they went through the streets of
A)What would
have happened to them – No Helper to fill the place of Jesus.
B) We would no
longer see a powerful band of teachers equipped to revolutionize the world,
1) but a company of fishermen, without intelligence
and without influence,
2) a band of men who in a short time would
melt under the influence of unbelief and cowardice.
C) Christ was
all in all to his people while he was here. Now, all that Jesus was, the Spirit
of God is now to the church.
D)He
abides in us !
1) All that we
have to offer comes from our connection to His Indwelling.
#3
Why does the world reject the Holy Spirit?
A)Jesus said in our text –
It doesn’t see Him or know Him.
B) Yes, I believe this is the
great secret why many laugh at the idea of the existence of the Holy Spirit -
because they cannot see him.
C)You
tell the one who is absorbed by worldly pursuits and pleasures, “I have the
Holy Spirit living within me.” He says, “I can’t see it.”
D)He
wants it to be something tangible - something he can recognize with his senses.
There
was a Christian man who was trying to share with His unbelieving doctor- The
doctor was using this argument- Can’t see God – His Spirit.
The
doctor said there was no spirit, and asked, “Did you ever SEE a spirit?” “No,” said the Christian. “Did you
ever HEAR a spirit?” “No.” “Did you ever SMELL a
spirit?” “No.” “Did you ever TASTE a
spirit?” “No.”
“Did
you ever FEEL a spirit?” “Yes,” said the man -
“I feel I have one within me.” “
Well,”
said the doctor, “there are four senses against one; you only have one on your
side.”
“Very
well,” said the Christian, “Did you ever SEE a
pain?” “No, said the doctor.” “Did you ever HEAR
a pain?” “No.” “Did you ever SMELL a pain?”
“No.” “Did you ever TASTE a pain?” “No.” “Did
you ever FEEL a pain?” “Yes.” “
And that is
quite enough, I suppose, to prove there is a pain?” “Yes.”
So the people of this world say, “There is
no Holy Spirit,” because they cannot see it.
A)But we feel it.
B) Love of God poured out in
our hearts by the HS
1)
You sense the presence of God –
2)
Sense that relationship
C) Goes beyond the mind to
the core of the heart !
But the natural man doesn’t
understand that.
“These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom
teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of
God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned.”