John 14:16-17,26-27 (The
Ministry of the Holy Spirit, Part 1)
Intro:
Final words thoughts teachings
A)Jesus introduces the idea
of the HS
"If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will
give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever 17 the 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.
18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
B)Jesus told his disciples
that he was leaving them.
1)The
good news for these men is that they would not lose Jesus.
C) Not
leave them orphans. He would be
back by means of His Spirit, and He would stay with them.
1)
Says Another Helper = Another of the same Kind.
Talked
last time Personality of the HS
A)3rd Person of
the triune God Not a force or a Power
B) 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 :
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
D)
Again those are things that a force or a power cannot do! Personal traits and actions
So
Jesus was leaving but He wasnt going to leave them alone Send another just
like Him{ Spirit
A)If you were going to die
and you told your kids Uncle Joe is going to come and take care of you.
B) But Never met uncle Joe not very comforting
C)But if you told them I
am going to come back to you in another form
1)
I will be with you forever . They may not understand it totally- but much more re-assuring for them.
The
Spirit would take over the work that Jesus had been doing with the disciples.
A) The reason they had held
firm in their faith for
3 ½ years was because they were with Jesus.
B)The minute they lost sight of who he was, even when he was
physically present, they began to come apart.
C)
He upheld them; he strengthened them; he counseled them; he ministered to them.
1)
But now he promises another is coming who will do this same work.
D) Entering into a new dimension in their
relationship with Him!
V.19 "A little while longer and the world will see Me no
more, but you will see Me. Because I
live, you will LIVE ALSO , 20 At that day you will know that I am in
My Father, and you in Me, and I in
you.
A)There is a new vitality
coming by means of the Spirit.
B) It is amazing to me to
see when someone starts to understand that the Risen Christ is alive in them
thru His Spirit they live
1)
Lives once dull Now they are filled with a new sense of Joy &
purpose as the Spirit began to release
to them the life of Jesus.
C) I
love the way that Jesus puts this I am in the father and you are in me.
1)
Become a Christian First experience Placed in Christ.
D)We know we belong to another
family; we realize that we now are children of God.
E)We
are no longer children of the devil, following after a false philosophy.
1)
We have been transferred out of the powers of darkness into the kingdom of the
Son of his love.
F) The reality of the
phrase "You
in me."
But
soon we begin to learn another great truth -- that he is "I in you."
A)We learn that we are not
required to demonstrate how much we can do for God, but
what he can do through us!
B)Many Christians take a long
time to understand this
1)They
spend yrs trying figure out what can I do for God.
C)This explains how a lot of
believers can have a great deal of excitement and holy zeal
1)
But in reality achieve very little.
D)
They are not aware of the new provision that has been made:
1)Jesus
will be at work in them.
E) He has given us the HS as a Helper!
Now
the word Helper is the word Paraclete in the Greek it means one called to ones
side to help.
A)It is also a that was an
ancient warriors term. "Greek soldiers went into battle in pairs,",
B)
See when the enemy attacked, they could
draw together back-to-back, covering each others blind side. 1)Ones battle
partner was the paraclete."
C)Our Lord does not send us
to fight the good fight alone.
1)The
Holy Spirit is our battle partner who covers our blind side and fights for our
well being.
Now here the
HS is referred to as the Spirit of truth
Imparts truth
to the world especially believers v26
Look at
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your
remembrance all things that I said to you.
A)Here we are told that one of the main
aspects of
His ministry is that of
teacher
B) For the rest of our time today
I want to focus on How He teaches & then the Purpose of His teachings.
C) How ? 4 ways
#1
Through appointed Vessels!
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints
for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we
all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a
perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
A) Placed Pastors and
teachers{ Open up the word
Give understanding insight
B) Equip edify build up
and strengthen make stable.
#2
He Himself gives us understanding. Turn to
12 "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot
bear them now.
A)Why
didn't he say them? What was hindering him?
B)The answer, of course, as
he says, is that they couldn't bear them then.
1) Kindergartener
Calculus
C)It would have been laying
too heavy a load on them., so he refused
to lay it on them.
1)But the text also tells us
what they were lacking
13
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all
truth;
A)Teaching guiding carry
the idea of instruction and application.
B) Computer problems Eddie/
Aaron / Rob
1) They
quickly fix it fast what did you do
They start talking computer
{ forget it
C) The HS doesnt operate
that Way He teaches He guides
D) He opens the word to us
and speaks to our hearts giving us insight into how it is to be applied.
I
love the fact that the Lords desire is not to keep us in the dark V. 13
continues
for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears
He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of
what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine.
Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
A)Twice Jesus says the
heart of the father is to DECLARE these things to you.
B) That is the role of the
HS
1) He starts by bringing the
word to life!
9 But as it is written: "Eye has
not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for
those who love Him." Usually we
stop there but we must read further.
10 But God has
revealed them to us through His Spirit.
A)What a remarkable thing
These deep things have been revealed to us by the HS.
B)The Word of God can at times
seem like a dark cave with many tunnels and depths
1) For the Christian who is
willing to venture in the HS is like a
guide holding a torch illuminating wonders there in.
C)Unfolding the beauty of
ancient truths that with stand the test of time.
1)
True 4,000 yrs ago and equally true today.
Paul continues
For the Spirit searches all things,
yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the
spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God
except the Spirit of God.
The
spirit of God is clued into the heart and mind of God! { Good news
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the
Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely
given to us by God.
God has
blessed us Given us His spirit opens the word to our hearts
13 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.
The
Spirit is truly a remarkable resource.
A)He gives to the believer a
source of knowledge not to be found in any university in the land.
B)Take the top academic
institutions filled with vast collections of human learning and knowledge,
1)
But it doesnt compare with the Wisdom that comes from the Spirit of God.
C)There
is fundamental knowledge about life, absolutely necessary to properly function
as a human being, that will never be found in any secular university, 1) but is
made available to us only by the Spirit.
D)This
resource is a fountain of strength, an ability to revive, to encourage, to put
new focus into life.
1)
The Spirit can grant a cleansing of the conscience and heart that human
psychology knows nothing about.
Here
is what is amazing: You can take two individuals and put them in the same
situation
A)One has a ton of formal
training & education but not the spirit
B) He might follow the
procedure to the letter follow the manual by the book
1) But it is the wrong approach
for the situation
C) Take another individual no formal training
but filled w/ the spirit and sensitive to the spirit.
1) Listens to the voice of
the Spirit
D)
Result is his actions are right on the money
1) He handles the situation
in a way that shows a great deal of wisdom
E) Probably the best
combination Someone who is trained yet filled and sensitive best of both
worlds
#2 The HS teaches
by giving us understanding of the Word of God
#3
He brings to remembrance: For the disciples
talking inspiration
A)Jesus
was reassuring the disciples that the things He taught them over 3 yrs HS
bring to remembrance
B)This
is our reassurance that when these men began to write they wrote exactly what
Jesus had said.
C) To use the
modern language of
D)Some
even see this division in the words of Verse 13: However,
when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth;
(that would be Gospels), for He will not speak on
His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; (the Epistles), and He will tell you things to come (the book of Revelation)
E)For them it was bringing
to mind the things that He taught to be penned for the scriptures
He
still does the same thing in our lives brings to your remembrance truth
A)Dont worry about what to
say
.
B) Some verse you havent
even memorized He brings to your remembrance.
1)
HS retrieval system Computer data base of the heart and mind.
C)
Notice v. 13 again
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all
truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears
He will speak;
This
is an important point as well.
A)What does he mean there?
He means that the Spirit of God is never going to give you isolated truth.
B)He will not come out with
some startling, brand new, absolutely different revelation which nobody
has ever heard of before!
C)Every
now and then we hear of some preacher who says, "God has spoken to me and
has revealed to me this brilliant new idea. Nobody has ever taught it before.
1)
If you want to know the secret you've got to come to me!"
That
is exactly what Jesus says will not happen.
A)The
Spirit of God will never speak that way.
B)He
will speak only what he hears. The Spirit, as God, is always hearing what God
forever is saying to men.
1)Therefore,
what he says is always integrated truth, always in line with what God has
already said.
C)It is in line with what he
has already spoken.
1)
It will never differ from what he has said in the past, but will fit into the
context of life as God has revealed it.
No new truth! If it is new
it is not true!
A)New
application maybe even insight that might broaden the truth. No new truth
B)
Test taught by Jesus in the gospels? Was it modeled by Jesus in the gospels?
1)
Modeled by the Church in the book of Acts ?
2)
Taught by the earlier Church in the epistles?
C) If answer is no throw
it out!
J.
O. Sanders wrote, A walk in the Spirit will of
necessity be a walk in accordance with the Word the Spirit has inspired.
Now
lets consider the purpose of His teachings
A)John 14:27 Peace = Stability in tough times the ability to
cope!
B)Think for a minute about
the persecution that they were about to face.
C) Yet there was a peace and
confidence that marked the earlier Church that was staggering.
2) Testify of Jesus! -
"But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from
the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify
of Me.
His whole purpose is the
point us to Christ Bear witness to Christ.
HS doesnt want to be the
focus doesnt want to be the center of attention Doesnt want Glory
3) Glorify Christ
We can tell when we are
walking in the Spirit.
A)There
is peace and an absence of strife.
B)
No Striving!
C)
We are pointing to Jesus testifying of Jesus
Jesus is being glorified not
us.