John 14-16, Various Passages
Theme: Our Lord’s teaching about the Holy Spirit helps us appreciate His invaluable ministry in our individual Christian lives and in the ministry of our church.
Delivered Sunday, March 29, 2009
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
This morning, I call your attention to the ministry of a very wonderful Person. I don’t believe our church appreciates His ministry nearly as much as it should. Sadly, some professing Christians don’t give much thought to His ministry at all. And yet, His ministry is something so vital that we truly cannot do without it—either in our church, or in our personal lives as believers.
The Person that I’m referring to is the Holy Spirit. And I ask that we turn together to the later portion of the Gospel of John, and see what Jesus Christ—the Lord and Master of His Church—had to say about the Holy Spirit’s ministry.
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The context of these words about the Holy Spirit is very important. Jesus spoke them to His disciples during His final meal with them, just before He went to the cross. The other Gospel writers—Matthew, Mark and Luke—tell us only a little about our Lord’s words to the disciples during this last supper. But John devoted five whole chapters—chapters 13-17—to what He said to them.
During that meal, Jesus had made the shocking announcement to His disciples that He was leaving them. And they were greatly distressed over this news. After all, for three-and-a-half years, they had wrapped their lives around Jesus. He had been everything to them. But what would they do now? How could they go on without Him?
And it’s then that Jesus begins to give them the words about the Holy Spirit that we’ll be looking at this morning. Jesus wanted to comfort His distressed disciples by letting them know about the Spirit’s ministry; and this is because the Holy Spirit’s ministry would be the divine provision of support for Jesus’ followers, on this earth, until the time He would come again for them.
And what a wonderful provision the Holy Spirit is! The Bible teaches us that the Holy Spirit isn’t simply a “feeling” or a “force” or a “thing”; but that He is, in every respect, a person. The Bible tells us that He experiences emotions (Ephesians 4:20), that He expresses intelligent thought (1 Corinthians 2:10-11), and that He exercises a will (1 Corinthians 12:11). He is as much a person as you and I are.
But He’s more than just a person. He’s a divine Person. He is the third Person of the Trinity. He is to be reverenced by us as God—just as we reverence the Father as God, and the Son as God. The Holy Spirit is a part of that great mystery to which we bow—that, as the Scriptures reveal, there is only one God; but that He exists eternally as three divine Persons who are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit—about whom Jesus spoke—is a person; but much more, He is a divine Person. When we speak of the Holy Spirit, we are speaking of someone who is fully God—and who has been sent to minister to the Lord Jesus’ people on earth in His absence from them as God.
So; let’s look together at some of the things that God the Son—who was about to return to God the Father—told the disciples about this wonderful Person, God the Holy Spirit. And as we do so, let’s grow to appreciate and rely on His invaluable ministry in our church and in our individual Christian lives today.
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The first thing that our Lord revealed to His disciples about the Holy Spirit during His final meal with them was that He is . . .
1. THE HELPER OF THE SAINTS (John 14:15-18).
Jesus was about to leave. And before He left, He told His friends . . .
“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—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. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:15-18).
Though Jesus was leaving them, He didn’t leave them without instructions. He had taught them many things; and He instructed them that, while He was gone, they were to keep on obeying His commands. “If you love Me,” He said, “keep My commandments.” That, if I may put it this way, is our part of the arrangement.
But look then at our Lord’s part. He says that He will pray to the Father for His followers; and that the Father would give to them “another Helper” who would abide with them forever—that is, “the Spirit of truth”.
I hope you don’t mind if I take a moment to explain some of the specific words that are used in what Jesus said. These words give us great insight into the Spirit’s ministry on our behalf. The first word we need to consider is the one that’s translated “Helper”. It’s the word paraklētos. It’s made from the joining of two Greek words together into one: para, which means “along” or “beside”; and klētos, which means “someone who is called”. Thus, a paraklētos is someone ‘called alongside’ to provide comfort to someone else, or to stand as their advocate, or to provide help to them in times of need. And that’s what Jesus says the Holy Spirit is to us—the divine Person who is called alongside us as, we dwell on this earth, to serve as our Helper while Jesus is apart from us.
But what kind of “Helper” is the Holy Spirit? The next word we need to consider is the one that’s translated “another”. The Holy Spirit is “another” Helper—and there’s a wonderfully encouraging and comforting truth tucked away for us in that word “another”.
If I had a pencil in my pocket, I would have a “writing instrument”. And if I also had a pen in my pocket, I would have “another writing instrument”; but the way I would describe it is as “another writing instrument of a different kind”. We would only have one English word to express that idea—the word “another”. But the Greek language had a distinct word for that that—heterōs; which means “another of a different kind”. But if I had two identical pens in my pocket, I could say I had “one writing instrument” and also “another of the same kind of writing instrument”. The Greek language had a distinct word for that kind of idea as well—allōs; which means “another in addition” or “another of the same kind”. And the wonderful truth we discover is that Jesus said that the Holy Spirit—whom He would send in His place—was not heterōs, but allōs. He was another Helper of the same kind as Himself.
For three-and-a-half years, Jesus was everything to the disciples. He was their Teacher. He was their Guide. He was their Provider. He was their Defender. And now, He was leaving them. But before He left, He promised to send “the Spirit of truth” to minister to them in His place. And the Holy Spirit would be everything to them that Jesus Himself had been to them during His bodily presence with them—another Helper of the same kind as He had been to them.
Jesus says that the world couldn’t receive this Holy Spirit; because “it neither sees nor knows Him”. But the disciples certainly knew Him! They knew the Holy Spirit because they knew Jesus Himself; and after Jesus returned to the Father, the Holy Spirit would be to them everything that Jesus Himself had been to them. This was so much so, in fact, that Jesus could say, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” What’s more, He says that the Holy Spirit wouldn’t simply be “with” them—as Jesus could only be during the days of His bodily ministry toward them. Rather, the Spirit would be “in” them—which occurred after Jesus went to the cross and died for them, so they would become fit vessels for the Holy Spirit to indwell.
Let me ask you, dear brothers and sisters; how differently would you live today if you knew that you were in the constantly supportive presence of Jesus Himself? What kind of a difference would it make—in your home-life, your work-life, your leisure-life, your church-life, and your social-life, and even in your times of difficulty or trial—if you always had a divine Helper like Jesus with you? Well; you can take Jesus’ word for it that, if you have trusted Him as your Savior, you already do have such a Helper—so close to you as to actually have taken up permanent residence in you! You have, right now, an indwelling Helper who is just like Jesus—just as divine, just as powerful, just as wise, just as loving, just as comforting, and just as holy.
This wonderful Helper will never leave us. He abides with us always. How thankful we should be for the ministry Holy Spirit—our ever-present, divine Helper!
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Jesus not only taught us that the Spirit is the Helper of the saints; but that He’s also . . .
2. THE TEACHER OF THE TRUTH (John 14:25-26).
Jesus had told His disciples that if anyone loves Him, they would keep His words and obey Him. But how could you and I know for sure what it is that He said? How can we be certain of what it is that our Lord wanted us to do?
Once again, the Holy Spirit’s ministry wonderfully meets this need for us. Jesus said,
“These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 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” (John 14:25-26).
Now; the identity of the “you” in Jesus’ words is very important. These words weren’t meant to apply to everyone. They apply specifically to the eleven disciples who had been in His bodily presence; because it was only to them that He could say, “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you”. As we will see later, the Holy Spirit does have a ministry of guiding all the saints; but these particular words of our Lord were meant to apply specifically to the eleven apostles.
But note the specific promise Jesus makes to those apostles. He said that the Father would send the Spirit “in My name”—that is, as His divine Representative who operates in perfect continuity with all that Jesus Himself had sought to be toward them and to teach them. And He says that this promised Holy Spirit “will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
Think of all the things that Jesus did and taught during His bodily ministry on this earth! The apostle John said that there were so many things that, “if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25). How easy it would have been for these precious few men—frail and faltering as they were—to forget the things that it would be crucial for the church to know, or to miscommunicate truths that would be vital to our personal salvation. These men, after all, were as human as we are. With Jesus gone, how could anyone be sure that they accurately remembered and recorded the things He did and taught? How could we—in the ministry of our church—be assured that the Gospels we preach from, and the New Testament letters we teach from, were accurate representations of what Jesus truly wanted His people to know?
Well; here’s how. It’s thanks to the infallible teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit; whom Jesus sent to these apostles in His place to teach them and bring to their remembrance all the things that we would need to know. Because He came, we can be assured that what Paul said is as true of the New Testament as it is of the Old Testament: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Thanks to this aspect of the Spirit’s ministry, we can trust our Bible!
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Jesus also taught that the Holy Spirit is . . .
3. THE BEARER OF THE WITNESS (John 15:26-27).
Not only did the Holy Spirit ensure that the church would have an accurate record of the things that Jesus did and taught as our Redeemer and Lord—things vital to the salvation of lost men and women—but He also ensures that their report of Jesus would be proclaimed to those who need to hear it. Jesus said,
“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. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning” (John 15:26-27).
Do you notice how the Holy Spirit’s testimony of Jesus in this world is also connected to the witness that the apostles bore of Him? They had been with Him from the beginning. But in and of themselves, they could never bear a witness of Jesus to the world. They had all abandoned Him at His betrayal. Afterwards, they went into hiding for fear of their lives. But Jesus had made a promise to them after His resurrection, before He ascended to the Father: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
And they were! And ever since, the Holy Spirit has empowered His people, as His human instruments, to fulfill His ongoing ministry of testifying to Jesus around the world. And you and I, today, can trust the same Holy Spirit to also empower us as His witnesses, and to use us to testify of Jesus to the people He places in our lives.
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Now; as you probably know from experience, one of the greatest ‘road-blocks’ we run into in sharing the good news of Jesus with lost people in this world is their own hardness of heart. How do you convince someone to turn to the Savior when they don’t even believe they need to be saved?
Once again, the Holy Spirit’s ministry on earth helps us. Jesus tells us that the Spirit also serves as . . .
4. THE CONVICTOR OF THE WORLD (John 16:7-11).
The disciples were in great sorrow over the fact that Jesus was leaving them. But He went on to tell them,
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged” (John 16:7-11).
Have you ever tried to convict a hard-hearted friend or relative of his or her sin? It’s almost impossible to do. Some people are so ‘prosperous’, or ‘moral’, or ‘educated’, or ‘religious’, or ‘esteemed’ by this world’s standards, that unless a transformation occurs deep in their inner-most being, they would never accept the idea that they were sinners. And you and I have no such access to their inner-most being.
But here, we discover that it’s not our job to convict people of sin after all. It’s our job simply to bear witness of Jesus to this world in the power of the Holy Spirit—always pointing to the Scriptures that the Spirit has inspired and preserved for us. And it’s His job to convict the sinners who hear that testimony concerning their need for the Savior. The Holy Spirit does have the power to transform the inner-most being of needy sinners. He has complete access to the dullest of hearts, or to the darkest of minds, or to even the most deadened of consciences.
And look at how thorough His convicting ministry is! Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit convicts the world “of sin”. This, He said, is “because they do not believe in Me”. The great ‘work’ that God calls forth from people is to “believe on Him whom He sent” (John 5:29); and the greatest of all sins is to refuse to believe on Jesus, whom God sent into this world to be our Savior. And yet, it’s the Holy Spirit’s ministry to convict the world of the sin of rejecting Jesus.
Jesus also told us that the Holy Spirit convicts the world “of righteousness”. Jesus said that this is “because I go to the Father and you see Me no more”. So long as Jesus walked upon this earth, He was the visible example of a life that pleased God. The people of this world could only know what sin looked like through looking at the law; but they could know what righteous looked like through gazing upon the life that Jesus lived. And now that He is gone to the Father, and we see Him no more on this earth, the Holy Spirit continues to convict the world of the righteousness that Jesus Himself displayed.
And finally, Jesus told us that the Holy Spirit convicts the world “of judgment”. And this, He said, was “because the ruler of this world is judged”. Satan is the ruler of this present world order—this ungodly system of philosophies and values and priorities that are at war with the things of God. But Satan is a ruler who has already been judged and is doomed. His kingdom is finished. Jesus said, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:31-32). And when we proclaim Jesus in this world, the Holy Spirit convicts those who are aligned with this world’s values and priorities; and lets them know that the ruler of this world is judged!
Every single person in this room who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ today ought to be deeply grateful for the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit. Because of it, you have felt the burden of your sin, trusted in Jesus as the Savior from sin, and are saved today!
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Another aspect of the Holy Spirit’s ministry to us is that He serves as . . .
5. THE GUIDE ALONG THE WAY (John 16:12-13).
Jesus couldn’t tell the disciples everything that He wanted to tell them while He was on earth. They wouldn’t have been able to grasp it all. But again, the Holy Spirit meets this need. Jesus said,
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 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; and He will tell you things to come” (John 16:12-13).
Though they hadn’t fully understood all that Jesus taught them, there would be no reason for them to be concerned. Jesus would be sending “the Spirit of truth” to the church; who would serve as a faithful guide in those things that Jesus wanted His people to know.
I think of this aspect of the Spirit’s ministry in a two-fold way. First, there’s a positive aspect to it. The apostles were given the foundational teaching that Jesus wanted His church to possess; and this body of truth has been recorded for us forever in the Scriptures. And now that this foundational truth has been fully given, the Holy Spirit has guided His people throughout the centuries in studying the Scriptures and applying the things that Jesus would want them to know. He would guide His church into, literally, “all the truth”; that is, all the foundational truths that had been given to the apostles for the church—”the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3 ). The Spirit would even tell them “things to come”—that is, He would reveal the unfolding of God’s plan for the ages that will culminate in the return of Jesus to this earth. If we trust the guiding ministry of the Holy Spirit, and faithfully study God’s word with reliance on Him and according to sound principles of interpretation, we will never go far astray.
But there’s also a negative aspect to the Spirit’s guiding ministry. The Holy Spirit also protects His people from false doctrine and error. Have you ever heard a preacher on the radio or on television, or have you ever read a book that said it was “Christian”, and felt as if there was just something not right about what you were hearing? I believe that when we are faithful to heed God’s word as a habit of life, there will also be times when the Holy Spirit will gently come along side us and—as it were—whisper to us, “My child, beware! What you are hearing from this teacher or preacher or writer is not from Me.”
The apostle John put the matter this way;
These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him (1 John 2:26-27).
How lost in the fog of this world’s ideas and false doctrines we would be, if it weren’t for the faithful ministry of the Holy Spirit to guide His church in accordance with the Scriptures!
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Let me share one more thing that the Lord Jesus says the Holy Spirit does for us; that is, He serves in this world as . . .
6. THE GLORIFIER OF THE SON (John 16:14-15).
Jesus closes His specific teaching about the Holy Spirit in this portion of John’s Gospel by saying,
“He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you” (John 16:14-15).
The Holy Spirit’s focus of attention is not on Himself. If ever we run across a ministry that professes to be from the Holy Spirit, but that ends up shining the spotlight on the Holy Spirit Himself the majority of the time, we can know that it is not a ministry of the Holy Spirit. And this is because the Holy Spirit shines the spotlight on Jesus.
The first Person of the Trinity (that is, the Father) has given all things over to the second Person (that is, the Son). The Father has called our attention to Jesus. And the third Person (that is, the Holy Spirit) takes the things the Father has given to Jesus and reveals them to us. Just as the Father glorifies the Son in heaven, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son in this world. And if we have truly tasted of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we too will join Him in His ministry of glorifying the Son.
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So; here are the things that Jesus has told us about this wonderful Person named the Holy Spirit, and about His invaluable ministry to us in this world. How important it is that we know about His ministry! How helpless we’d be without Him!
And may I close with one final question? How do you and I experience the ministry of the Holy Spirit in a personal way? Jesus tells us the answer to this too. He once stood in the temple in Jerusalem and cried out to all the people there;
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).
John went on to explain,
But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (v. 39).
Jesus Christ has died and He has been raised. He has been glorified; and now, the Holy Spirit has been given. He is available today to anyone who is thirsty enough to come to Jesus and simply believe on Him. And the promise of Jesus Himself is that this same Holy Spirit will become in them an endless supply of all that they will ever need—flowing forth from them as satisfying rivers of living water that transforms this world.