The Holy Spirit, John 16:1-15, 14 July 2013
Big Idea: When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we experience the fruit, gifts, and fullness of God in our lives to glorify Jesus.
Introduction
It could be said that one challenge people have with Jesus is that they can’t see Him. He’s not here. Jesus has left the building…and the planet. We worship a God who visited us for 33 years and then ascended into heaven more than 2000 years ago. But God is here; God the Holy Spirit.
Throughout the book of John, Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit. He predicts the events of the second chapter of Acts (one of the most exciting chapters in the entire Bible). We actually looked at the first verses of John 16 three weeks ago, but we’ll review them here. The context is Jesus predicting His death.
“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. (1-3)
Paul, the writer of much of the New Testament of the Bible, was once one of these people. Before his conversion to Christianity, he was a brilliant religious scholar, a Pharisee, named Saul who encouraged the stoning of Stephen and other early followers of Jesus (Acts 8:1). The irony is striking, yet even today there are people around the world that think they are offering a service to God by killing Christians.
I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. (4a)
A few weeks ago we talked about expectations. Jesus prepared His followers for the temporary suffering they would face in order to reap eternal rewards. Virtually every religion tries to sell the benefits of their faith, yet Jesus repeatedly goes out of His way to let people know they must count the cost before flippantly following Him.
I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. (4b-6)
Can you blame them for being filled with grief?
Imagine you devote your entire life to another person. All married couples should at least be able to imagine this! Now imagine they said they were going to leave. Now imagine they warned you about being ostracized from your community or even killed for your relationship with them. I would have grief! Jesus continues…
But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. (7)
Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit. Why is the Holy Spirit coming rather than Jesus staying?
Furthermore,…
When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. (John 16:8-11)
Jesus has talked about how the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, will defend believers and strengthen their witness. Now the defender becomes the prosecutor and judge.
First, the world refuses to believe Jesus as God. This is true today, too. It wants its own way, not God’s.
Second, they don’t understand the cross will proclaim His innocence and righteousness.
Finally, it is the world and satan that will be judged, not Jesus and His followers.
The Holy Spirit will do these things and more.
Jesus then says
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” (John 16:12-15)
Dr. Gary Burge wrote,
“The Spirit's sole ambition is to draw attention to Jesus and to reveal to us that Jesus has been raised from the dead and has ascended to his heavenly Father, of whom he is the one and only Son.”
- The NIV Application Commentary, John
The Spirit does not take us deeper into ourselves but further out of ourselves where we find Jesus. The Spirit stirs us to long for Jesus.
So What?
The Holy Spirit may be the most underrated resource in the life of a follower of Jesus.
http://muddyrivermedia.org/media/propane
The Spirit is one of three Persons that make up the Trinity, our three-in-one God. The Trinity is a mystery, yet the Bible is clear that each is distinct yet fully God. When we receive Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit, too. The question is, are you filled with the Holy Spirit?
How do you know? In the previous chapter of John, Jesus said if we abide or connect with Him, we will bear fruit. Galatians 5 is explicit about what this fruit is:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23a)
Are you a more loving person than you were on New Year’s Day?
Would friends say you are more joyful than a year ago?
Do you feel peace despite your circumstances?
Are you becoming more patient?
Is kindness a clear and obvious trait to co-workers or fellow students?
When is the last time someone commented on your goodness?
Could faithfulness describe your character?
Do you have a reputation for being gentle?
When is the last time you were out of control?
I have a fear. My fear is that as individuals, many of us know the Bible but not Jesus. We are religious, but not filled with the Holy Spirit.
We need the Holy Spirit. We all need more of the Holy Spirit. We receive the Holy Spirit by confessing our sins and then inviting the Spirit to come and fill us. This is not a one-time event or even an annual process, but an ongoing lifestyle of passionately pursuing God.
This (Galatians 5:22-23a) is what we are to look like. This is the fruit we are to bear. I pray that the power of the Holy Spirit would ignite our hearts. I pray that He would break our hearts with the things that break His heart, the lost and hurting. I pray that He would do a new thing in our church, replacing fatigue with fire, apathy with zeal, and complacency with compassion.
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, (Ephesians 5:18)
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. (Ephesians 6:18)
Every day we must pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit, sensitive to sin, and sensitive to the promptings of God.
In our text for today, Jesus promises the Holy Spirit. We are on the other side of that promise. We have 24/7 access to the Holy Spirit, but it is not automatic. Like oxygen in our lungs, we must breathe in the Spirit daily, hourly.
Are you filled with the Holy Spirit or are you trying to live life from the heat of the pilot light (see video above)?
You can listen to the Scio podcast here. You can also subscribe to our podcast here.
Introduction
It could be said that one challenge people have with Jesus is that they can’t see Him. He’s not here. Jesus has left the building…and the planet. We worship a God who visited us for 33 years and then ascended into heaven more than 2000 years ago. But God is here; God the Holy Spirit.
Throughout the book of John, Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit. He predicts the events of the second chapter of Acts (one of the most exciting chapters in the entire Bible). We actually looked at the first verses of John 16 three weeks ago, but we’ll review them here. The context is Jesus predicting His death.
“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. (1-3)
Paul, the writer of much of the New Testament of the Bible, was once one of these people. Before his conversion to Christianity, he was a brilliant religious scholar, a Pharisee, named Saul who encouraged the stoning of Stephen and other early followers of Jesus (Acts 8:1). The irony is striking, yet even today there are people around the world that think they are offering a service to God by killing Christians.
I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. (4a)
A few weeks ago we talked about expectations. Jesus prepared His followers for the temporary suffering they would face in order to reap eternal rewards. Virtually every religion tries to sell the benefits of their faith, yet Jesus repeatedly goes out of His way to let people know they must count the cost before flippantly following Him.
I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. (4b-6)
Can you blame them for being filled with grief?
Imagine you devote your entire life to another person. All married couples should at least be able to imagine this! Now imagine they said they were going to leave. Now imagine they warned you about being ostracized from your community or even killed for your relationship with them. I would have grief! Jesus continues…
But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. (7)
Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit. Why is the Holy Spirit coming rather than Jesus staying?
- Jesus was restricted by His human body, able to only be in one place at a time.
- Jesus came for one purpose—to die! He is about to do that as He says these words.
- The Holy Spirit is able to dwell inside believers. God will live inside people!
- The Holy Spirit will provide various gifts to believers.
- The fruit of the Holy Spirit will be produced in the lives of believers.
Furthermore,…
When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. (John 16:8-11)
Jesus has talked about how the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, will defend believers and strengthen their witness. Now the defender becomes the prosecutor and judge.
First, the world refuses to believe Jesus as God. This is true today, too. It wants its own way, not God’s.
Second, they don’t understand the cross will proclaim His innocence and righteousness.
Finally, it is the world and satan that will be judged, not Jesus and His followers.
The Holy Spirit will do these things and more.
Jesus then says
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” (John 16:12-15)
Dr. Gary Burge wrote,
“The Spirit's sole ambition is to draw attention to Jesus and to reveal to us that Jesus has been raised from the dead and has ascended to his heavenly Father, of whom he is the one and only Son.”
- The NIV Application Commentary, John
The Spirit does not take us deeper into ourselves but further out of ourselves where we find Jesus. The Spirit stirs us to long for Jesus.
So What?
The Holy Spirit may be the most underrated resource in the life of a follower of Jesus.
http://muddyrivermedia.org/media/propane
The Spirit is one of three Persons that make up the Trinity, our three-in-one God. The Trinity is a mystery, yet the Bible is clear that each is distinct yet fully God. When we receive Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit, too. The question is, are you filled with the Holy Spirit?
How do you know? In the previous chapter of John, Jesus said if we abide or connect with Him, we will bear fruit. Galatians 5 is explicit about what this fruit is:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23a)
Are you a more loving person than you were on New Year’s Day?
Would friends say you are more joyful than a year ago?
Do you feel peace despite your circumstances?
Are you becoming more patient?
Is kindness a clear and obvious trait to co-workers or fellow students?
When is the last time someone commented on your goodness?
Could faithfulness describe your character?
Do you have a reputation for being gentle?
When is the last time you were out of control?
I have a fear. My fear is that as individuals, many of us know the Bible but not Jesus. We are religious, but not filled with the Holy Spirit.
We need the Holy Spirit. We all need more of the Holy Spirit. We receive the Holy Spirit by confessing our sins and then inviting the Spirit to come and fill us. This is not a one-time event or even an annual process, but an ongoing lifestyle of passionately pursuing God.
This (Galatians 5:22-23a) is what we are to look like. This is the fruit we are to bear. I pray that the power of the Holy Spirit would ignite our hearts. I pray that He would break our hearts with the things that break His heart, the lost and hurting. I pray that He would do a new thing in our church, replacing fatigue with fire, apathy with zeal, and complacency with compassion.
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, (Ephesians 5:18)
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. (Ephesians 6:18)
Every day we must pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit, sensitive to sin, and sensitive to the promptings of God.
In our text for today, Jesus promises the Holy Spirit. We are on the other side of that promise. We have 24/7 access to the Holy Spirit, but it is not automatic. Like oxygen in our lungs, we must breathe in the Spirit daily, hourly.
Are you filled with the Holy Spirit or are you trying to live life from the heat of the pilot light (see video above)?
You can listen to the Scio podcast here. You can also subscribe to our podcast here.